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Jonathan Friendly is the national editor of , which owns the weekly Jewish newspapers in Detroit and Atlanta. He is a former journalism professor at the University of Michigan and a former reporter and editor at The New York Times.
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By Jonathan Friendly
February 9, 2003
Ariel Sharon deserves congratulations for his convincing win in the Israeli Knesset elections. Despite an Israeli press preoccupation with the "scandals" of alleged campaign payoffs within Likud, the prime minister has obviously persuaded Israel that he and his platform represent the best current choices for defending the country's security and rebuilding its economy.
Still, he must assemble a strong working majority within the 120-seat parliament to provide consistency and stability in the rebuilding process. Israel has external troubles enough. It doesn't need to present a fractious face to the Arabs or to the rest of the world, and that means having a powerful, centrist unity government.
As much as we would like to see a strong voice for achieving peace through negotiations rather than continued occupation, Labor can not effectively provide that alternative. The voters were unequivocal in rejecting the plan of Labor leader Amram Mitzna to enter into talks with the Palestinians without preconditions; they quite rightly insisted that the Palestinians first make a good faith and effective effort to quell terrorism before substantive talks can take place.
Labor would serve both the national interest and its own future by choosing a replacement for Mitzna as soon as possible and joining a national unity government with Likud and the other major electoral victor, the Shinui (Change) Party of Tommy Lapid. Likud's 38 seats, coupled with 19 from Labor and 15 from Shinui, would provide a comfortable margin for a Sharon government that would not have to rely on staying in good graces with a handful of splinter parties, many from a religious right that has been far too insistent on enforcing their imprint on national policies.
Sharon does not have to demean the substantial contribution of the Haredim to protecting Jewish tradition, but he can work for a government that guarantees more equal treatment of all citizens, observant or not, as Shinui has sought. And he can certainly be comfortable with stopping the rapid and needless expansion of West Bank settlements, as Labor wants. It would be better to use the settlement subsidies for repair work within Israel proper, a policy that may, in any event, be forced on Israel as a condition for new financial aid from the U.S.
In the coming months, Israel is likely to face new Middle East instability and terrorist threats because of Arab anger over America's now almost inevitable war with Iraq. The best way to deal with that fact is to present a national government that speaks with one voice and one mind on the core issues. That is what the electorate has said it wants. That is what it deserves.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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