Barak seeking to 'Putinize' image to attract Russian vote

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Until a few weeks ago Barak was entirely irrelevant in the Russian street and polls indicated that Labor would get less than half a Knesset seat from the sector.

Barak hopes that the fighting in Gaza will change the tide and restore him as a player in Russian speakers' eyes.

"Unlike the failed Lebanon war, the war in Gaza was brutal enough and successful enough to score points for Barak," a political commentator who wished to remain anonymous said.

"Barak is lucky. Most Russians see this war as a failure, but Barak is identified with the military victory, not with its political failure," he said.

Under the halo of a military victory, Barak's messages in his address to the Russian public will be much more radical and aggressive than those in his Hebrew campaign. Russians are assumed to love power and to be looking for a strong leader and Barak will present himself as an answer to both these needs."

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[rucky]

1. brutal enough to score points

nice.

[Scurrilous]

2. Kadima kicks off campaign with threat to assassinate Hamas chiefs

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"Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz threatened to assassinate Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders, as Kadima kicked off its election campaign in Sderot Monday.

Speaking about kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, Mofaz addressed Haniyeh. "As long as Gilad Shalit doesn't see the light of day, you won't see the light of day. As long as Shalit doesn't go free, you and your friends will not be free. We won't hesitate to send you on the the way we sent Yassin and Rantissi," he said, referring to previous Hamas leaders.

Mofaz's hard-line stance is part of Kadima's efforts to improve its image in the campaign, following Kadima leader and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's decline in the polls after the war in Gaza.

Livni, who is also trying to look tough, devoted a considerable part of her speech to the Gaza war's accomplishments. She threatened Hamas that Israel would react harshly to any rocket fire, or even to any arms smuggling to the Gaza Strip."

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[HamdenRice]

3. This is one of the most depressing aspects of the Gaza fiasco. I used to respect Barak

I used to think of Ehud Barak as one of the most far thinking Israeli leaders. Actually I also admired Peres based on some of the stuff he wrote in the 80s.

During the Oslo process, Rabin and other labor leaders acted as though they had to hold their noses to work with the Palestinians, but Barak had a really inspiring long term vision of the two peoples working together and creating an example for the entire Middle East. Barak at one point didn't just want to end the conflict, but wanted genuine reconciliation and to make the Palestinian state a truly equal partner and exemplary state. Maybe I was being gullible, but from many of the profiles I read of him, I believed his vision was sincere.

I haven't wanted to comment on this, but the subtext I've been reading is that Ehud basically decided to murder Palestinians to increase Labor's electoral chances of winning the elections.

[Mosby]

5. I think most of what he has been saying is designed to

dispel the typical generalizations Israeli voters make about Labor party candidates. Bibi (in his own special way) has been doing the same thing, just in the opposite direction. IMO Barak is the same guy he was during Oslo, but he needs to bring in centrists and right leaning voters to have any kind of chance in the upcoming elections.

[Scurrilous]

4. Gaza War Gives Bigger Lift to Israel’s Right Than to Those in Power

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"With two weeks to go before the Israeli elections, the politicians who seem to have benefited the most from the military offensive against Hamas in Gaza are those who were not involved in planning or carrying out the war.

That is not because Israelis have regrets or have become faint-hearted about the casualties and destruction in Gaza. To the contrary, there appears to have been a shift further to the right, reflecting a feeling among many voters that an even tougher approach may now be required.

Recent polls indicate that Likud, Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing opposition party, has retained and even increased its lead. The other party that appears to have gained the most ground is the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu, led by Avigdor Lieberman.

A hawkish legislator and former minister, Mr. Lieberman pulled his party out of the governing coalition a year ago when Israel began negotiations over Palestinian statehood with the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, which is viewed as more moderate and pragmatic than Hamas.

President Obama said on his second day in office that his administration would “actively and aggressively seek” an Israeli-Palestinian peace. In Israel, though, the popular discourse is less about peace than realpolitik and security as the Feb. 10 elections draw near.

“The mood in the country” fits Mr. Netanyahu’s “line,” said Asher Arian of the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent research institute in Jerusalem."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/world/middleeast/27mideast.html?em