in a surprising election parlay, MK Amir Peretz (Labor) shaved his iconic mustache in order to be able to say "read my lips, I will not sit with Netanyahu in the government"

I don't like the current electoral system, and I believe it should be changed. However, I do not like the idea of changing it, like any law, just to help or hurt a specific person. It should be changed in order to provide a more stable and efficient system of governance, not to promote a specific candidate, help his chances, or hurt a candidate's chances.

That si why I do not like the new proposal by MK Amir Peretz (Hatnua).

Peretz is worried that in the current electoral system, Naftali Bennet has a reasonable chance to become Prime Minister of Israel. In some constellation, his party could become the largest party, and then he would be appointed to hobble together a coalition. In a direct electoral system, where the people have to vote for the specific prime ministerial candidate, Bennet does not have a chance, according to Amir Peretz. The assumption being that the 20% support he has is his limit, or close to it, and that's not nearly enough to win enough votes to become prime minister.

So, Peretz is working to change the electoral system back to the one in which elections for prime minister are direct elections.
source: Srugim

To remind you, this was done before and deemed a total failure. It accomplished the exact opposite of what its goals were. It was mean to be the first stage of an overall change to full direct elections and thereby create more stable government, with the small parties being knocked out entirely and more power given to the large parties. The direct elections effected in reality a situation in which people could vote for their preferred candidate, and still support their preferred party, and they gave even more power to the small parties. When the large parties suffered from the change, they quickly reversed the decision and went back to the old system. What I think they should have done is go immediately to stage  and complete the electoral reform, but they didn't.

So, Amir Peretz, because he wants to hurt the chances of one potential candidate, wants to change the entire electoral system to one that everybody already admitted was an even worse system.

It is also interesting that he thinks Bennet's chances of becoming prime minister are good enough that this must be done.

It is important that the atmosphere of replacing Netanyahu should be true. I think there are many worthy and good women fitting to replace Netanyahu and I do not rule out myself.

  -- MK Amir Peretz

is he counting himself as one of the worthy women, or in addition to the women he thinks he himself is also worthy?

no way could he stay on as a minister after this interview... neither from his perspective nor from Netanyahu's...

I am impressed, Minister Amir Peretz's English seems to have gotten much better than I remember it..






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Minister of Environmental Protection Amir Peretz has announced that his ministry is putting together a plan to form a new unit that will function under the National Service plan. This unit will be comprised of hundreds of citizens from the Haredi and Arabs sectors.

Peretz has told the administration of his ministry to prepare a plan to absorb 500 new people from these sectors. The tasks these units will be tasked with will include supervision over extermination in cities, preventing illegal exterminations that could cause health problems, and, this is the best, supervision of the coast and beaches...
(source: Ynet)

I can see it now - Haredim running to volunteer for Sheirut Leumi to supervise the beaches. There will be rabbis in suits and hats wandering up and down the beaches of Israel. filled with bikini-clad females sunbathing.. While I know some people who might love such a job, I can't believe they expect this to work with this crowd as the target of volunteers..

Amir Peret'z Haredi Supporters

In preparation for upcoming elections (eventually), the Labor party is trying to get its act together and choose a new leader. To that effect, the various candidates are gathering supporters and registering new members to the party. Amir Peretz in particular is coming under fire for fudging the ranks with non-Labor voters just to help himself in the primaries.

Peretz is criticized specifically using Netivot as an example - it seems his people signed up a lot of new members in the Haredi community of Netivot.

I don't know if this Haredi woman is going to actually vote for Amir Peretz or not, or if she will be voting Labor in any future elections even if Amir Peretz should win the primaries and lead Labor, but she came to speak at a rally for Amir Peretz.

Funnily enough, you'd think an experienced public figure like Amir Peretz would already know protocol and what is done in the Haredi community. Yet you see him at the end of the video going over to thank her and shake her hand, an offer that she refuses..

I turn to that Party whose name I have no reason to mention - don't take Ben-Gurion's name in vain. It is an insult to the holy and you have defiled the values of this state.

  --MK Amir Peretz (Labor)

I don't get it.

Why are the top people in the Labor Party letting a failed Amir Peretz set the tone and the agenda for the future of the party, and put himself in as the front-runner for party leadership? Peretz was a dismal failure.

Where is Avishai Braverman? Yitzchak Herzog? Even guys like Eitan Cabel or Ofer Pines-Paz (his name would go over real well around the world as Israel's leader) should be trying to set the tone for the party.

Where are all the other Labor guys that could be stepping in and showing themselves as leaders? Labor has some good guys who are capable as future leaders of the party. Why do they let Peretz take over like this?

Remember the last time DM Amir Peretz went out with his generals into the field and forgot to remove the lens cap from his binoculars? Well, it looks like he is smart enough to avoid repeating the same mistake twice.... This time he just avoided the binoculars completely...

Last night I heard on the radio on the TV news program (isn't that amazing how you can hear the TV news program on the radio??!!) an interesting piece of news.

They reported that Amir Peretz is being investigated for allegations that he bought votes in the recent Labor Party primaries using government money. I did not hear the whole report, but what I did hear was about how he promised money to the northern communities for "pikud ha'oref" - wartime preparation (Home Front) - for preparing bomb shelters and the like, if they would vote for him. Somehow the city of Tzfat was involved. It seems the jurisdiction for Pikud Ha'Oref up north is in the Tzfat region.

The mayor of Tzfat pushed people to vote and openly supported Amir Peretz. I do not recall the numbers, but Peretz received like triple the amount of votes in Tzfat than the other candidates.

Peretz, of course, denies it. He says he would love to give them money, but can't. He has to fix up the bomb shelters anyway, he said, so why would he promise that as an incentive to vote for him. Etc.

I do not know if he did it or did not do it. I want to know something else. I want to know why I have not heard anything since that initial report. Has the story been suppressed? Where is the reporting? I can't find any mention of this on Ha'aretz or Ynet or any other news source I have looked at.

Is this another example of the media pushing a specific agenda? Just yesterday Arutz 7 reported from the Haifa Radio Conference that IBA (Israel Broadcasting Authority) broadcasters admitted to having slanted the news reporting in order to push their personal agendas.

It seems a number of them had children serving in the IDF in Lebanon, at the time, and they wanted their children to be safe and out of Lebanon. So they slanted the news reporting to push an agenda so their kids would be home safe.

That is not even a national agenda of peace with Palestinians or whatever that they usually push. That was a personal agenda of some broadcasters. And they were proud of it (not admitting to it with an apology, but bragging about how they set the agenda!).

That is unbiased and objective news reporting?

A big story like possible corruption by the Defense Minister in internal party politics, using government for vote buying, and it is not mentioned in the major news sources? Is this another example of the same - some agenda being pushed? Does Amir Peretz now have some quasi-Etrog status?

Everyone is saying that the following proves we live in Chelm.

If I am not mistaken, Chelm was supposedly in Poland (if it existed at all). Our esteemed Defense Minister hails from Morocco, not Poland. He sports a last name of Peretz.

According to Jew-Gen, a typical Polish name would be something like Berkowitz or Krakowski or the like. Peretz does not even qualify for citizenship in Chelm (it is not my intention to poke fun at Moroccans in general, just specifically this Moroccan. Some of my best friends are Moroccan!)

So what is it already? I saw the picture of this in the newspaper and on-line. Now, thanks to Jameel at The Muqata I have seen the video clip, and I am sharing it with you.

It is unbelievable that this is the Defense Minister. It does not even look like he realized...

I do not understand the tension between the Defense Minister Amir Peretz and the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

There have been a number of recent incidents in which the relationship between the two has been strained due to conflict.

The latest is the decision regarding the purchase of a new missile defense system. Amir Peretz made his evaluation and decided to go with one of the options. His decision is irrelevant to me. I am not going to praise it or criticize it, as I have no way of knowing which of the four options were better or worse. I will assume (rightly or wrongly) that Peretz did his due diligence and made his recommendation based on professional factors.

Peretz announced his conclusions, selecting a system developed by the RAFAEL corporation. Immediately after his announcement, Olmert announced that Peretz has no right to make a decision on this matter and he would have the final say.

Of course, after all the back and forth between the spokespeople of each respective office, they each say their is no conflict or tension between the two.

This came after a scuffle over who has the right to recommend the new IDF Chief of Staff.

I do not understand Olmert's position. He says the Defense Minister has no right to make any of these decisions.

If the Defense Minister cannot select the Chief of Staff, or even make a recommendation on the matter, and cannot decide or even recommend a missile defense system, what exactly is his job description? What can he do as Defense Minister? Where do his responsibilities end and Olmert's begin?

If Olmert is not allowing the Defense Minister to make defense related decisions because he feels the DM is not qualified to do so, then he should fire him and appoint a DM who is qualified. If he thinks the DM is not qualified then what makes him think he is any more qualified to make such decisions? His military background is no more qualifying than Peretz's record.

Is it really not the Defense Minister's responsibility to make such decisions or recommendations? If not, what is his job description? What are his responsibilities?