Nice little analysis of the Israeli situation. The only place that I have read reports that touch on the themes you discuss, particularly about this "Russian" and "Oriental" split and the control of the Interior Ministry, is in the Financial Times. Most everyone else wrings hands over the Labor/Likud "split" (which wedge is about as wide as the Democrat/Republican one, perhaps less so).
>May 14, 1999
>
>FOREIGN AFFAIRS / By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
>
>The Accidental Peacenik
>
> F or the first time in Israel's history, its upcoming election is
> about who will control the Interior Ministry, not the Foreign
> Ministry. It's about what kind of Israel, not what size of Israel.
All the reports I have been reading also stress that this election is not about "security" or the Palestinians, that for the first time an Israeli election is about political personalities and domestic issues. None of them explain why this is is, or what they mean by that. Friedman tries, but the starting premise of his argument is, well, an obfuscation (that's the charitable word).
> Thanks to Mr. Netanyahu, there is now a loosely unified core of 75
> percent of Israelis ready to proceed with the Oslo accords toward a
> Palestinian state of some size or other.
This is loony. The end goal of Oslo is a Palestinian state. Netanyahu repeats on a near-daily basis that he doesn't want that, and his actions and policies only reinforce that belligerence. Additionally, Barak, the dove, has said that he is against a Palestinian state. So where is this 75 percent? Perhaps it exists, but certainly none of the candidates are of that plurality.
Eric Beck