By Stan Goodenough
Apr 03, 2006
Instead of ending the uncertainty that has plagued Israel for months, last week?s general election has thrown the country into even greater political disarray.
For many observers, it is an unfolding answer to prayer.
The end result has blown out of the water the long-forecast massive Kadima Party win that would have made Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert the elected leader of the country.
It led, Sunday, to a sudden push towards a government that would make social issues its top priority and put the whole ?peace process? on the back burner.
As this is being written Monday, that initiative has triggered tensions in the Labor Party. And the most recent developments are seeing other parties see-saw back and forth regarding the individual they want to have as prime minister.
All this would have been avoided had the pundits and pollsters been proved prophetic. Olmert would have been able to begin implementing his ?convergence plan? right after assembling a coalition whose direction he would have been free to set.
That plan would see 80,000 Jews forced out of their Judean and Samarian homes, those homes destroyed, and 90 percent of Israel?s biblical heartland irretrievably given to the Islamic Arab world.
When the voting booths closed last Tuesday, Olmert thought he had it in the bag.
?Today, Israeli democracy has spoken its piece, in a loud and clear voice,? he proclaimed in his victory speech. ?Israel wants Kadima.?
But the record low voter turnout, the final tally, and the subsequent and ongoing fallout from the election all give that assertion the lie.
What Israeli democracy has declared in a loud and clear voice is that Israel does not want Kadima. Israel does not want Olmert. Israel does not want ?convergence.?
And for the untold numbers of Jews and Christians who fasted and in prayer pleaded for the annulling of that plan, these events amount to a resounding answer from the Lord.
The first indication that all would not go as "planned" came when, with just two hours to go before the end of the allotted time, only 57 percent of those eligible had even bothered to vote.
This meant that almost half the country was not supportive enough of Olmert's plan to even go to the polls.
The acting PM and his party correctly read this as a bad omen and pleaded with their supporters to vote. The final percentage that did was set at 63 meaning that those who really wanted Kadima in, and who would have been buoyed by the weeks of promising polls, likely were jolted into answering the call.
And yet, instead of a landslide, Kadima still took only 29 seats. Clearly a majority of those who did vote therefore also did not see ?convergence? as a priority for their mandates.
Olmert is not king pin after all. His weak win has meant that President Moshe Katsav is less likely to ask him to form a government. As a result, and in a move that infuriated Kadima, efforts got underway Sunday to cobble together a coalition of other parties around Labor in support of a social emergency government.
Hardly had this cat been thrown among the pigeons when, late Sunday, both Labor and Kadima were dealt a blow by the Central Election Committee, which announced that one of Labor?s seats actually belonged to the United Arab List?Taal Israeli Arab party.
Kadima?s ?convergence coalition? was thus rendered unattainable as Olmert ? who before the election vowed that no opposing party would join his government ? cannot now secure a 61 Knesset seat majority.
For his part, Labor?s Amir Peretz was weakened by the loss of this seat in his bargaining position with Kadima.
While it remains unclear as to who will eventually form the new government, these cucial issues have already been decided:
Ehud Olmert?s Kadima is not the party of choice for most Israelis;
His plan to ?disengage? from Judea and Samaria does not have the backing it needs.
These facts should message many of those Christians and Jews who remain concerned for Israel?s security and future to keep praying until this part of the battle has been won.