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Kadima

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Kadima
LeaderEhud Olmert
FoundedNovember 21, 2005 by Ariel Sharon
HeadquartersPetah Tikva
IdeologyCentre/Centre-right
Website
www.kadimasharon.co.il

Kadima (Hebrew: קדימה, Qādīmāh, "forward") is a centrist or a centre-right Israeli political party. After the elections on March 28, 2006, it is also the strongest party in Israel, having won 29 out of 120 seats in the Knesset. It was formed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon after he formally left the right-wing Conservative Likud party on November 21 2005, to produce a new party which would grant him the freedom to carry out his policy of unilateral disengagement - removing Israeli settlements from Palestinian territory and fixing the borders with a separation barrier.

Kadima's platform

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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 blocks 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. One possibility to achieve this goal would be to hold 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 individual basis, and a plurality voting system for legislators in which Knesset members are elected by specific regions of the country instead of by party list. [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. One of the Haredi parties, United Torah Judaism, 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 Labour's socialism (it's economic policies are right-wing) and the Likud's opposition to a Palestinian state (however from an international context Shinui may actually be on the centre-right).

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 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

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 an aggressively activist officer in the Israel Defense Forces and 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, after resigning from parliament, Sharon served as special advisor to Labour Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. With the approach of the 1977 elections he established the economically left-leaning Shlomtzion Party securing only 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 the center-right Liberal Party and the larger Herut party, together with two smaller right-wing parties. Sharon 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 became the leading force in the Israeli government.

After a period of rapidly changing coalition governments, Sharon formed a coalition of his Likud with Labour in December 2004 in order to implement Israel's disengagement plan from the Gaza Strip, without concern for the political backlash from the more extreme right-wingers within the Likud and in other parties that had previously been his strongest supporter base.

Ehud Olmert, one of the former leaders of the Likud party, acting Prime Minister of Israel and Finance, Trade and Industry Minister

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 aligning 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 from the outburst of the Al-Aqsa Intifada terror war against Israel in September 2000. He further benefited from former prime minister Ehud Barak's failure to reach "Final Status" agreements with the Palestinians at the Camp David 2000 Summit and Taba summit in January 2001 as well as the following waves of Palestinian suicide bombings that created a general sense of insecurity.

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 extreme right 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 government 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 Committee for his key ally Ehud Olmert to that position, which was a source of frustration and personal humiliation.

The resignation of Labour ministers

File:Shimon Peres in Kadima.jpg
Shimon Peres, former leader of Israel's Labor party, left Labor, formally joined Kadima and is in the second place in the Kadima Knesset list after the acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and before the Foreign and Justice Minister, Tzipi Livni.

The final stroke was the unexpected ousting of Sharon's ally Shimon Peres, as leader of the Labor 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 Labour 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", "Onward", or more precisely translated, "let's get on with it", 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.

A common Hebrew word, however, the term kadima has been ubiquitous in Israeli political rhetoric and is likely not indicative of any specific ideological bias.

Doubts following Sharon's medical problems

The ramifications of Sharon's close identification with Kadima has moved in an unexpected direction due to his hospitalization on December 18 2005 after reportedly suffering a minor stroke [9]. During his hospital stay, Sharon was also diagnosed with a minor hole in his heart and was scheduled to undergo a cardiac catheterization to fill the hole in his atrial septum on January 5, 2006. However, on January 4, 2006, 22:50 Israel Time (GMT +0200) Sharon suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke, and was evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem to undergo brain surgery. [10]. This has introduced a serious element of uncertainty for Sharon's and Kadima's supporters which they had not expected, and it opens up to new questions by his political enemies about Sharon's fitness to lead and govern.

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert succeeded him as Prime Ministerial candidate. Without Sharon, there was uncertainty about the future of the party. Nevertheless, three polls taken shortly after Sharon's illness show Kadima continuing to lead its rivals by large margins. [11]. Later polls showed Kadima strengthening its power base further, particularly amongst left wing voters who had opposed Sharon in the past.

On January 16, 2006, the party chose Ehud Olmert as acting chairman[12] and candidate in the next general election, to be held on March 28. [13] The Kadima party won a plurality of seats in the Knesset in these elections.

Tzipi Livni, one of the former leaders of the Likud party, Foreign Minister and Justice Minister

Membership

Former Likud members

Main article: Likud

Former Labour members

Main article: Labour (Israel)

Former members of other parties

Other prominent figures

Slate of candidates for 17th Knesset

The following are the first fifty one Kadima members on the party list announced on 31 January, 2006. It had originally been rumored that Ariel Sharon would be given the first slot as a symbollic gesture, but this did not take place. Kadima's spokeswoman commented that the still-unconscious Sharon was prevented from running on the Kadima list as he could not sign the official form to join. [14]

In the 2006 election, Kadima won 29 Knesset seats, so the top 29 candidates listed here became MKs.

  1. Ehud Olmert
  2. Shimon Peres
  3. Tzipi Livni
  4. Meir Sheetrit
  5. Avi Dikhter
  6. Marina Solodkin
  7. Haim Ramon
  8. Shaul Mofaz
  9. Tsakhi Hanegbi
  10. Abraham Hirshzon
  11. Uriel Raykhman
  12. Gideon Ezra
  13. Roni Bar-On
  14. Dalia Itzik
  15. Ze'ev Boym
  16. Ya'akov Edri
  17. Ze'ev Elkin
  18. Majalli Wahabi
  19. Rukhama Avraham
  20. Menakhem Ben-Sason
  21. Shlomoh Barzinits
  22. Eli Aflalo
  23. David Tal
  24. Avigdor Yitskhaki
  25. Ronit Tirosh
  26. Otni'el Shneler
  27. Michael Nudelman
  28. Amira Dotan
  29. Yo'el Khason

30. Shay Harmash
31. Yitshaq Ben Yisra'el
32. Yohanan Plesner
33. Shlomo Mola Ngosay
34. Dan Ben-David
35. Rachel Adto Levi
36. Rina Grinberg
37. Limor Carmel
38. Liat Ravner
39. Shai Avital
40. Yulia Smolov-Birkovitz
41. Udi Barzilai
42. Yosef Tamir
43. Shlomoh Gravets
44. Anastasia Michaeli
45. Avi Krempeh
46. Shmuel Rifman
47. Rafi Elul
48. Uri Shitrit
49. Itsiq Haddad
50. Amir Halevi
51. Ahmed Dabbah

Left, Right or Centre

There has been some debate over where Kadima lies on the political spectrum. Many in the Western media use the terms "centrist" or "centre-right" to describe the party. Notwithstanding economic policy, the party may be viewed from an international perspective as being on the right in the security sphere, due to its position of holding on to some of the settlements, but also due to its use of the separation barrier, and unilateral disengagement rather than negotiations. However, since the political centre of Israel is more to the right of many other democratic nations, they could possibly be seen as centrist or even centre-left, from an Israeli perspective (although as it is undoubtedly to the right of the Labour (centre-left) and Meretz (left-wing) this is difficult to argue). It may be more likely that, with the arrival of Kadima, the political centre has shifted to the left in Israel and what was once a leftist position is now centrist. Founder Ariel Sharon was for most of his life on the right of Israeli politics and most of its elected membership are former Likud party members, but it also has a number of notable ex-Labour MP's. It is probably too early to say where it lies on either the Israeli or international political spectrum. One thing is clear, is that there is a new political consensus in Israel, that Palestinian statehood is inevitable, and those that don't accept this are now on the political fringes.

See also

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