Thursday, January 15, 2009

As cease-fire approaches, parties end their own truce

A cease-fire has yet to be signed, but that has not stopped the political parties from ending their self-imposed moratorium on conducting politics during Operation Cast Lead.

Over the past three weeks, the parties limited themselves to "back-door campaigning," which consisted of visiting the South and issuing statements about developments in the Gaza Strip. But in the past week, as the cease-fire came closer, first the small parties resumed campaigning, and then the large parties joined them on Thursday.

The Likud scheduled, and then canceled a rally for Thursday night at the party's Tel Aviv headquarters in which responsibilities for the party's campaign would be allocated among its top 40 candidates. A Likud spokeswoman said the event was scheduled because a cease-fire was approaching and it was canceled later due to Thursday's escalation in Gaza.

But Kadima said the Likud only canceled the event because it was revealed by the press. They accused Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu of "panicking and caving into pressure" when he canceled it.

"Netanyahu has once again been caught zigzagging," a Kadima official said. "His contrived attempt to look statesmanlike blew up today with his attempt to hide a big political rally that he organized despite his promise to refrain from politics during the war. It's unfortunate that it was only canceled after the press found out about it."

Kadima accused both Likud and Labor of ending the moratorium on politics prematurely with attacks on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in radio interviews given by Likud faction chairman Gideon Sa'ar and Labor Secretary-General Eitan Cabel on Thursday.

Cabel told a Tel Aviv radio station that "the old arrogant Olmert of the Second Lebanon War had returned" when Olmert bickered this week with Labor chairman Ehud Barak and with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Sa'ar told Israel Radio that all citizens of Israel were now aware that Livni was wrong when she endorsed the Gaza Strip disengagement, abandoned the Philadelphi Corridor and supported the six-month cease-fire agreement with Hamas.

"As long as the fighting continues, our campaign will remain silent," a Kadima spokesman said.

Labor and Likud both responded that they had not restarted campaigning. A Labor spokesman said that his was the only party that had completely refrained from politics during the war, noting that Barak had not given a single interview.

Sa'ar said "Likud, unlike some parties, refrained from putting up signs during the war."