(Gideon Levy-Haaretz).The Kadima primary this week is no more than the election of a condo committee. And this is the last chance: The condo is slated for demolition, an urban renewal project. Kadima will not survive. The ideological power of the new Dash has been exhausted, its leadership used up, its job over. The house that arose as an electoral exploit by Ariel Sharon will hardly manage to run one more time, and then it will be evacuated.
Living together happily in this condo are the representatives of the imaginary Israeli political center, which does not exist; residents who came from the right, but want to feel good about themselves, giving themselves a moderate and enlightened appearance. They are also the most mediocre of political hacks, they and their neighbors across the hall. The most captivating resident, Tzipi Livni, has already been elected chairwoman of the committee in place of the corrupt chairman, who was appointed in place of the elderly chairman who collapsed. Now the residents will put together a list of their friends.
In this condo you can find everyone: Kadima's Moshe Feiglin in the form of Shaul Mofaz; a "moderate" settler at whose home you can spend the Sabbath in the form of Otniel Schneller; you can always borrow a drill from the friendly neighbor Yoel Hasson; Professor Yitzhak Ben-Israel from the top floor can fix the satellite dish; Ronit Tirosh will give private lessons and Ruhama Balila-Avraham can be on the decorating committee. More than that you will not find in this house in the Israeli center.
For a moment, this house looked attractive to many Israelis: A "model apartment," all shiny from a distance, perfectly designed, like in the magazines. But it's not real, only a virtual "model apartment ........
In the politics of the occupation - for some reason the main issue in every one of our election campaigns, after which nothing happens in any case - there is no center. Either you are for the occupation or you are against it, that is the question and it has only two answers. Sharp, clear and unequivocal. Those who do not say "no" to the occupation immediately say "yes" to it, and thus are on the right, not in the center or anywhere else. Those who do not work to end it, those who love negotiations that lead nowhere, are also right-wing, and all the camouflage and disguises in the world will not change that.
Livni is the embodiment of this disguise: Reciting messages honed by shrewd consultants, she has yet to say anything significant since she was elected Kadima's leader. Oh, yes, she is against Shas. And also, from time to time, she has right-wing slips of the tongue, like at the end of last week: You cannot always bring all the soldiers home, the national aspirations of Israeli Arabs will be met in the Palestinian state, and of course, in the competition with Ehud Barak, Livni is for bombarding Gaza. The residents of this condo are certainly pleased: That is what they want from the chairwoman of their committee: leading negotiations and bombarding. But this house cannot survive. It is devoid of ideas and a world view.
