A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman

August 17 , 2007 The State of Kadima

TonightÕs weekly news magazine on IsraelÕs channel 2 had an interesting piece on the state of the Kadima party. The correspondent stated that when she started out on the project she had Òpurchased a magnifying glass to find the partyÓ. She was however, very surprised to find a party that was very much alive. It turns out that Kadima party members have concluded there was no going back to their old parties. Therefore, they have had no choice but to keep Kadima alive. It seems there are two major camps in Kadima at the moment, with Livni and Avi Dichter both effectively running to replace Olmert when the time comes, but both seemingly closely allied. Shaul Mofaz leads the second camp. Mofaz feels that as the former Defense Minister and Chief of Staff, he has the best security credentials to compete with Barak and Netanyahu in an election. Meanwhile, observers believe that the public in Israel still wants a center party, so Kadima may survive.


Saudi Arabia and Syria have been trading chargesÐ with Syria claiming the Saudi Arabian role in the Middle East is waning and Saudi Arabia answering that Syria is a major destabilizing influence in the Middle East. Israel has always benefited from the disunity in the Arab world. Today, with so many factors interacting with others, it just makes it ever more difficult for either Israel or the United States to develop workable foreign policies.