Parliamentary government sucks. It guarantees the rule of the elite by the elite, with the help of the bribery of those in power. It’s far worse than the lack of term limits in the U.S. Congress.

In this case, if Livni can bribe enough Members of the Knesset, she will become Prime Minister without ever having to face a general election.

If Labor doesn’t have the balls to join Likud and bring down the government, say hello to more of the same.

Robert

Most MPs – including those in Kadima – know that they are likely to lose their seats in the next election, and so they are holding on as long as they can.

And please don’t swallow the Israeli media’s attempts to puff up Kadima. Their chronic Bibi-itis is flaring up, and they are desperate to promote someone – anyone! – as promising leadership material.

Don’t buy it. Kadima is likely to shrink drastically in the next election, and probably disappear altogether after that. It never was anything more than a raft of backbiting rats who abandoned ship. Now the raft is sinking.

Bibi and the Likud – cleansed of these political weasels – will come back, big time.

You can safely skip the months of Livni-puffery to come.

Unfortunately, although Israel is technically a democracy, it has been subverted so long by the socialist hegemony that most Israelis have very low expectations. There is nothing like a Bill of Rights or a tradition of small, limited government.

So North American immigrants – and a small clutch of conservative Israelis – try to educate people about what they should be demanding. And the majority shrug and work their way around the system and its corruptions.

Sure, we’re a democracy. So is Italy…

The problem is, of course, that even new elections probably will just bring in another coalition government, probably dependent on Shas again to find the MKs sufficient to form a government by a narrow margin of a few members. Then it will be vulnerable to threats by even small, splinter parties to pull out of the government unless they are stroked. Can you say “Labors of Sisyphus” boys and girls? I knew you could.

Do I really have to explain why she should call for new elections?

I thought that pointing out that less than 17,000 people voted for her might have been a hint.

Robert

If Israelis staged a large protest in Jerusalem, demanding new elections, and hundreds of thousands of people showed—what do you think would happen?

Embarrass the plutocrats. Force an election. Grassroots works.