July 17, 2012- Kadima Leaves Coalition, Syrian Endgame?

Kadima has left the coalition. This year's story of "Chok Tal" is over. There was a unique opportunity to make a historic change. Sadly, for reasons that are still not clear, Netanyahu walked away from his agreements with the Plessner, and effectively destroyed any chance for reaching an agreement. I give credit to Shaul Mofaz for sticking to his word this time and resigning. This decision will clearly result in Knesset elections earlier than was expected– Though when is not clear, but most likely in early 2012. It is still a little too early to tell what the political implications of the events of the last few weeks will be. However, early guesses suggest the sequence of events will end up having helped Yair Lapid and hurting Netanyahu. More than that, is anyone's guess.

There has been a great deal of controversy in the last week over a legal decision made by a committee appointed by Prime Minister Netanyahu. The aforementioned committee concluded that the West Bank is not "conquered territory", and can thus be annexed. Without going into the report itself, it appears that despite having been written by a former Supreme Court Justice the report seems to ignore International Law- at least as I understand it. (I only took one International Law course, so what do I know). However, I am more interested in some of the reactions. Two respected rabbi's: Donniel Hartman, an Orthodox rabbi known for his liberal views If it looks like occupation, and acts like occupation , and Daniel Gordis, a Conservative rabbi, known to be slightly right of center, both came out with strong articles calling on the government not to take any action. Gordis, however, seemed shocked by the level of attacks he has endured from those on the right, as a result of his statements. Rabbi Gordis has posted the statements on his Facebook. Here is some of the feedback written in the Jerusalem Post

Events in Syria may be reaching some sort of end game. The fighting has reached Damascus, while at the same time, the Syrian army has placed artillery surrounding a number of cities, with high percentages of supporters of the rebellion. Assad seem ready, to indiscriminately shell the cities, in a last ditch attempt to break the back of the rebellion. It's way to late for that.