The Shaul Mofaz Two Step

As promised an interesting election race in Israel and this is as good as it gets. Shaul Mofaz is doing the political two step and quite blatantly. After receiving the latest polls for the Likud leadership he realized he can’t win and decided to leave his political party for Sharon’s Kadima (forward). Several days before he was protesting the desertion of others in the Likud, proclaiming the need to rally around the party and strengthen it against those who have made it weak and yesterday he just upped and left.

His letters to Likud members, telling them that “You never desert your home”, letters mailed just a few days before are still in the mail and the man is history !

Shaul Mofaz is a military man. A man that lived his life in an environment that promoted discipline, honesty and moral code. As a Minister of Defense he will need to command army personal and will require them to be honest, straight forward and above all moral. Hmm…

Like Shimon Peres who lost the leadership race in the Labour Party and immediately switched sides and joined big daddy (Sharon), he too put aside his credibility, political conviction and ran to get his next job. Sharon asked him to join him when he first set off to start his own business (I mean party) but he refused. Political conviction is a great thing as long as there is no risk involved I guess.

Some selected quotes from his announcement yesterday (based on Hazofe):

“I am joining Kadima (forward) to make sure that it doesn’t become too leftist. Things that happened in the past are behind us and we need to look forward.”
(pun intended ?)

“I don’t see any problem and no question with the issue of credibility. From the moment I decided that I am not going with the Likud I informed the Prime Minister. It’s true that I have been in the Likud for 3 years but it became a different party since the separation and an atmosphere developed that prevented me from moving forward…”

“The political polls in Israel are like the weather, there is no need to make decisions based on the polls and my decision had nothing to do with them.”

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