Opinion & Comment
Politica: Eitam the Innocent

Mafdal Chairman Effie Eitam learned the hard way, once again, that politics is a profession and non-professionals should stay off the playing field.

Just over one year ago Eitam was placed in his current seat by seasoned politicians Zevulun Orlev, Yitzhak Levy and Shaul Yahalom. The Mafdal was searching desperately for a charismatic figure to lead the party in the elections and it chose Eitam. A high-ranking IDF officer and a clear right- winger, he cut a popular figure among their youth.

Yet there was a wide gap between what Eitam had in mind and what his senior party colleagues had in mind for him. Eitam thought he really did deserve to be the decision-maker while Orlev, Yahalom & Co. never intended to hand over the keys to the party. They merely wanted to use him to rake in the votes.

Recently Eitam tried, again, to go up against the veteran politicians in his party, and again he failed. He has learned that if things are left up to the Mafdal Central Committee he has no chance of being selected chairman again. Instead he must draw the party elections to primaries. He also sought to increase the number of Center members from 1,000 to 1,500 to reduce Orlev and Yahalom's influence on current Center members and tried to secure hundreds of spots for young members and a place on the Knesset list.

But Orlev and Yahalom were not born yesterday. It appears Orlev has already decided to run for the Mafdal chairmanship and he has no intentions of losing the battle. Meanwhile Yahalom is waiting for Eitam to scram, leaving him in the Number 2 spot.

When Eitam came to Orlev and Yahalom with his proposal the two quickly signed on so it could be presented as a proposal of all. Eitam then had no doubt all of the proposals would pass. However, Orlev merely wanted to put Eitam at ease. Behind the scenes he ensured the move would fail. Once Eitam realized what was going on it was already too late. All of Eitam's ideas lost.

Eitam brought the Mafdal into the government to make it more relevant. He wanted a ministerial post in order to build up his power. Being a simple MK and just submitting questions and motions is not for him. So now there is no chance the Mafdal will leave the coalition, at least not in the coming year.

Eitam is not giving up. Party election primaries will be held (this was the only decision he managed to pass) and Eitam plans to work on them. He will need the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure to give him an official position--an office bureau, assistants, a secretarial pool, cars, etc.

In any case this round is certainly not the last between Orlev and Eitam. Next time it will be over the party chairmanship.

Lapid the Dictator

Last week a meeting was scheduled to discuss requests by MKs Ehud Ratzbi (Shinui), Molly Polishok-Bloch (Shinui), Gilad Arden (Likud) and Matan Vilnai (Labor) to exempt their respective proposals regarding the construction of the security fence from having to be tabled in the Knesset. All of the proposals were aimed at accelerating the construction and requiring the government to complete the project within no more than one year. If granted the exemption the proposals could be brought before the Knesset within one week rather than six.

The meeting was scheduled for 10:30 am. At 9:30 am, a representative from an organization promoting the fence was assured by Ratzbi's office that all was going according to plan. But at 10:00, he found Ratzbi drafting a letter to Knesset Chairman Roni Bar On saying the three coalition members wanted to withdraw their requests.

It seems Shinui Chairman Tommy Lapid and Coalition Chairman Gidon Saar (Likud) pressured the three into withdrawing their requests, insisting it was unseemly for MKs from the coalition to propose legislation to hurry the government they themselves belong to. Although the three MKs tried to stand their ground it was hinted that the coalition would be forced to vote against it, removing any chance of passing.

Although Vilnai was not subject to any direct pressure, he too withdrew his request when it became clear it would never pass. "The Shinui dictator told them what the do and they did it," he explained.

This was not the first time Lapid has been known to force the hands of other MKs. He also intimidated MKs who backed the Geneva Accord against his will and others who supported Reuven Rivlin for Knesset chairman, to name a few recent examples.

Lapid has often opened his big mouth to mock chareidi parties for subordinating themselves to rabbonim, admorim and gedolei Torah while at Shinui, democracy supposedly reigns supreme. Yet Lapid is in truth a dictator who presumes to preach morality to the chareidi parties and then steps all over them to garner more and more votes at the polls.

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