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Kadima

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Kadima
LeaderAriel Sharon
FoundedNovember 21, 2005
IdeologyCentrism
Website
www.kadimasharon.co.il

Kadima (Hebrew: קדימה, Qādīmāh , English: "Forward") is a new Israeli political party with centrist aspirations. It was formed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon after he formally left the rightist Likud party on November 21 2005.

Kadima's platform

State of Israel
Israel
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Economy

Israel's media reported that Kadima released the main points of its national agenda on November 28 2005 as presented by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni in a drafted statement: [1]

  • The Israeli nation has a national and historic right to the whole of Israel. However, in order to maintain a Jewish majority, part of the Land of Israel must be given up to maintain a Jewish and democratic state.
  • Israel shall remain a Jewish state and homeland. Jewish majority in Israel will be preserved by territorial concessions to Palestinians.
  • Jerusalem and large settlement blocs in the West Bank will be kept under Israeli control.
  • The Israeli national agenda to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and achieve two states for two nations will be the road map. It will be carried out in stages: dismantling terror organizations, collecting firearms, implementing security reforms in the Palestinian Authority, and preventing incitement. At the end of the process, a demilitarized Palestinian state devoid of terror will be established.
  • Israel's political system will be modified to ensure stability: Legislative proposals will be made to increase the MKs' commitment to enable the public's bypassing central committees and vote contractors, and bring an end to the tyranny of the Likud Central Committee. One possibility would be holding primary, regional and personal elections to the Knesset and the Prime Minister's office.
  • Kadima would not rule out a future coalition partnership with any Israeli political party or person.
  • According to Uriel Reichman (former chairman of the board and founder of the Shinui party) Kadima wants to see a "presidential" system, in which voters choose the prime minister and legislators on an individual basis and not as part of a party list, with Knesset members elected according to specific regions of the country. [2]

Political objectives and policies

In the early stages, the policies of Kadima will directly reflect the views of Ariel Sharon and his stated policies.

Early statements from the Sharon camp reported by the Israeli media claimed that they were setting up a truly "centrist" and "liberal" party. It would appear that Sharon hopes to attract members of the Knesset from other parties and well-known politicians regardless of their prior beliefs provided they accept Sharon's leadership and are willing to implement a "moderate" political agenda. It is known that Sharon believes strongly in the Road map for peace and has a close alliance with US President George W. Bush, which would surely be a pillar of the new party's foreign policy.

On the domestic front, Sharon has shown a tendency to agree with his past political partner, the pro-secular and outspokenly anti-religious Shinui party (his allies in the 2003 government), which seeks to promote a secular civil agenda as opposed to the strong influence of Israel's Orthodox and Haredi parties. The Haredi parties joined Sharon's last coalition at the same time as the Labour party, after Shinui had left Sharon's original governing coalition. In the past, Shinui has also called itself a "centrist" party because it rejects both Labor's socialism and the Likud's skepticism about the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Whether Sharon's new party sees its own centrist party mission as enabling it to be in an alignment with Shinui (Sharon has in the past agreed with its social agenda) or with the Orthodox parties (the Haredi parties mostly agree with Sharon's foreign policy) remains to be seen.

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni reportedly told Israel Army Radio that the party intends to help foster the desire for a separate Palestinian state[3], a move which was applauded by leftist Yossi Beilin[4]. However, it would be unwise to imagine that Sharon has now adopted the political platforms of the left-wing parties. Indeed, Meretz leader Yossi Sarid indicated his disgust with the corruption allegations surrounding Sharon, and called upon him to resign.

Sharon is adamantly opposed to the one state solution and is one of the prime architects pushing for the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier that has been criticized by left-wing Israeli politicians, but is a cornerstone of Sharon's determination to establish Israel's "final" borders, which he sees himself as uniquely suited to do in the so-called "Final Status" negotiations.

In a November 22 2005 press conference, Sharon also mentioned that he favors withdrawing from untenable Israeli settlements in the West Bank, although he declined to give an actual timeline or specifics for the proposed action. [5]

Birth of the new party

File:Isharon.jpg
Ariel Sharon, former leader of the Likud party, and founder of the new Kadima party

Awaiting a political "big bang"

The political tug-of-war between Ariel Sharon and his right-wing supporters, both within the Likud and outside of it, was an on-going subject of speculation in recent Israeli politics and in the Israeli media. An expectation that Sharon would quit his own party to form a new party composed of his Likud allies and open the door to politicians from other parties to quit their own parties to join the new party was dubbed the "big bang" (hamapatz hagadol) of Israeli politics because it would result in a radical realignment of Israel's political landscape. In a New York Times op-ed article in September 2004, William Safire had already written about the coming (and inevitable) "big bang". [6]

Split from Likud

A number of complex factors contributed to Ariel Sharon's split from the Likud. After the official split from the party, Sharon claimed it was a decision made on a single night's thought[7], but at the press conference announcing the formation of the new party, Sharon adviser and Kadima's new Director General, Avigdor Yitzhaki, accidentally revealed that work on the project had been going on for several months. [8]

Sharon's objective in establishing Kadima is not bound to the Likud's restrictiveness on his policies and is directed towards the goal of winning a third term, with a large backing majority, as prime minister in 2006.

Background to the split

Sharon is known for often building complex coalition parties within Israeli politics. Sharon began his political career as a young left-leaning Israel Defense Forces protege of David Ben-Gurion. In 1973, Sharon was elected as a member of the Likud when he emerged as an Israeli war hero following the 1967 Six-Day War and in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. From June 1975 to March 1976, Sharon served as special advisor to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. With the approach of the 1977 elections he established the left-leaning Shlomtzion Party securing two Knesset seats which (after being rebuffed by Labour) then merged with the Herut movement within the Likud. He built the foundations and electoral power of the right-leaning Likud party which, under the leadership of Menachem Begin, became the main governing party of Israel in 1977.

Sharon helped to create the Likud as an amalgam (Likud means "consolidation") of some of Israel's older liberal parties and the larger Herut party, together known as Gahal. Sharon then led the Likud from 1999, taking over from Binyamin Netanyahu, becoming Prime Minister of Israel in 2001.

The rise of the Likud represented a maturing phase in the history of Israeli democracy, as power was peacefully transferred from an incumbent political party to the opposition. It was also a triumph for the ideals of Revisionist Zionism, which then achieved expression in the Israeli government.

Sharon formed another coalition when he persuaded Labour to align with the Likud in December 2004 to jointly form a unity government in order to implement Israel's disengagement plan from the Gaza Strip, without concern for the political backlash from the more extreme right-wing parties that had previously been Sharon's strongest supporter base.

Internal opposition within the Likud

In 2005, the implementation of the unilateral disengagement plan exposed enormous rifts inside the Likud and wider society in Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu capitalised on the split within the Likud by aligining himself with the rejectionist faction. Such that even though Sharon's popularity grew among the Israeli populace at large, it declined inside the Likud party structure.

Sharon, as leader of the opposition, benefited politically after the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, as a result of the failure to reach "Final Status" agreements with the Palestinians at the Camp David 2000 Summit by Prime Minister Ehud Barak who continued to make concessions to the Palestinians at the Taba summit in January 2001 which were followed by waves of suicide bombings that created a general sense of insecurity, and a deep distrust in the good faith of the Palestinians.

The general disillusionment with the Israeli center-left's policies, and the souring of prospects for a negotiated peace with the Palestinians, led towards a general rightward political shift, which Sharon and the Likud capitalized upon. Sharon officially became prime minister in March of 2001, having beaten Labour's Barak by a landslide victory. Sharon won again in 2003 when he was re-elected as prime minister by another landslide victory, beating Labour's politically dovish Amram Mitzna.

As Sharon compromised politically by aligning with Labour and other factions in the Knesset, politicians in the right-wing spectrum of the Likud leadership became vocal in opposing a number of his policies and handing him defeats in Knesset votes. As a sign of the continuous acrimony, they also refused to confirm his nominations of his closest allies to ministerial positions in 2005. This breakdown in party discipline threatened Sharon's grip on governmental policy and forced him to expend political capital on maintaining party unity.

Netanyahu resigned on August 7 2005 as the finance minister, by claiming that he could not honorably serve in a Likud goverment that endangered the safety of citizens of Israel, by implementing the unilateral disengagement plan. Sharon was then unable to get approval from the Likud Central Commitee for his key ally Ehud Olmert to that position, which was a source of frustration and personal humiliation.

The resignation of Labour ministers

Shimon Peres, former leader of Israel's Labor party, officially left the Labor party and supports Ariel Sharon, but has not formally joined Kadima.

The final stroke was the unexpected ousting of Sharon's ally Shimon Peres, as leader of the Labour party by the election of left-wing Histadrut union leader Amir Peretz in an internal Labor party ballot on November 8 2005.

Amir Peretz demanded that all Labor party ministers who served with Sharon and the Likud resign from the unity government and called for dissolution of the 16th Knesset and for new elections in early March 2006, overriding the initial electoral date set for November 2006.

When all the labour ministers had resigned, Sharon lost his "safety net" of supporters from Labour for the implementation of his political agenda, which includes continuing negotiations with the Palestinian Authority for "permanent borders" and a hoped-for final resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Naming the new party

The name Kadima (קדימה), which means "Forward" or "Onward", emerged within the first days of the split and was favored by prime minister Ariel Sharon. However, it was not immediately adopted, the provisional name having been "National Responsibility" (in Hebrew: אחריות לאומית, Aharāyūt Le'ūmīt), which was proposed by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and enthusiastically endorsed by Reuven Adler, Sharon's close confidante and strategy advisor. Although "National Responsibility" was regarded as provisional, subsequent tests conducted with focus groups proved it much more popular than Kadima. "National Responsibility" seemed certain to become permanent. Surprisingly, however, it was announced on 24 November 2005 that the party had finally registered under the name Kadima.

In an initial negative reaction to the naming of the new party, Yosef "Tommy" Lapid, leader of the competing centrist party Shinui, expressed dislike for the name "Kadima", owing to similarity in meaning with the Italian Avanti, the slogan of Mussolini's Fascist movement. He remarked: "Whoever chose the name 'Kadima' was ignorant of Italian history". [9] However, Lapid's criticism may have been off the mark, because in Italy the slogan Avanti! is primarily associated with the left-of-center Italian Socialist Party (founded in 1892) which has very strong anti-Fascist credentials. Avanti! is also the name of its official newspaper.

It so happens that Kadima is also the name of a small left-wing party in Beersheba, whose leading officeholder is deputy mayor. That party has appealed to the Justice Ministry that it has pre-existing rights to the Kadima name.

Further developments

As the name Kadima implies, Sharon claims he would like to "move ahead". The right-wing within the Likud had frustrated him with their inflexibility, because they demanded more reciprocity from the Palestinians. Some had even sought his ouster from the Likud, citing amongst other reasons, his son Omri Sharon's guilty plea on November 14 2005 to charges of obtaining illegal financing for Sharon's last election campaigns.

Sharon quickly obtained the official support of the needed 14 Likud Knesset members to join him (marking over one-third of the Likud's 40 Knesset members) to qualify for financial and constitutional benefits that are given to a new faction. Four other Knesset members from other parties joined Kadima in the following days.

Sharon will continue to serve as prime minister and has the ability to replace ministers to fill vacancies left empty by the departed Labour members. By the end of the first week of the new party's existence, Sharon sought to appoint members of Kadima to ministerial positions left vacant by Labour. On November 22 2005, Sharon obtained the agreement of President Moshe Katsav and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz for new elections to be held on March 28, 2006.

According to the Haaretz newspaper, public opinion polls suggest that if voting were held now, Sharon's party would win a plurality of votes, which would give him a chance for a third term as prime minister. As it stands, Kadima currently holds 18 mandates (19 if Peres' mandate is included) in the Knesset.

Membership

Former Likud members

Main article: Likud

Former Labour members

Main article: Labour (Israel)

Former members of other parties

Other prominent figures

Refused to join

Reportedly considering joining

See also

External links

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