The shakeup produced by Israel’s national elections has produced more than a new breed of political leaders and lawmakers. If the effect is sustained, it will break up traditional party frameworks and bring a new generation to power.

Israel’s political parties are on the move and eyeing new alliances in the wake of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s surprise announcement of a merger between his Likud and Avigdor Lieberman’s Israel Beitenu ahead of the general election in January. Netanyahu is eying the brand new Future party headed by ex-journalist Yair Lapid as a third prospective partner in his post-election cabinet. Labor under its new leader Shelly Yachimovich is resurgent and on the lookout for satellites. But the new Likud Beitunu list is still front-runner.

Less than a week after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu struck Iran with a red marker, the dire Iranian nuclear threat is thrust aside in Israel by an acute case election fever. debkafile: None of the politicians citing Feb. 13, 2013 as the date of an early election is privy to the prime minister’s carefully calculated agenda. Will that date see a poll followed by messy cabinet-building, or presage a decisive step for preempting Iran’s advance to the threshold of a nuclear bomb? And what other surprises are in store?

Barack Obama’s quarrel with Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak is becoming more intense and personal the closer Israel comes to attacking Iran’s nuclear program before the US Nov. 6 vote.  Read the coming DEBKA-Net-Weekly out next Friday, and find out how that feud fires up certain opposition political circles at home and fuels their virulent campaign to tie the Netanyahu government’s hands and so push it out of office.
And don’t miss our insights into the Muslim Brotherhood’s coup against the Egyptian army and the Syrian conflict.

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Acquitted of two corruption charges, Ehud Olmert leapt agilely Tuesday, July 10 from the pit of disgrace into the political limelight. He is apparently preparing for the role of great unifier of the left-of-center opposition, shaping a new bloc from disparate groupings and disaffected security and military chiefs to potentially hammer Binyamin Netanyahu’s ruling right-of-center coalition.
That coalition too faces change: Before going on trial next month, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has chosen Yair Shamir to succeed him as Israel Beitenu leader.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Kadima leader explained why they agreed to form a national unity government at a joint news conference in Jerusalem Tuesday, May 8. Netanyahu said the new lineup would provide a solid basis for addressing key issues: Legislation to replace the Tal Law with a more equitable distribution of national burdens; approval of a responsible state budget; reform of the electoral system and government structure for greater political stability; promotion of a responsible peace process.

The government has tabled a bill for dissolving the Knesset. The date is still not confirmed, but would-be candidates for seats at the post-election cabinet table are lining up.  Defense Minister Ehud Barak launched his bid to carry on in defense at a news conference Wednesday, May 2. Other bidders, on the assumption that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will head the next government, aim to cut Likud’s current right-wing and religious partners out of his coalition and push Likud into a centrist role.

Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak are facing another of the periodic opposition campaigns to unseat them. New faces have joined the opposition lineup, including a fledgling party, “There is a Future.” They are campaigning against an Israeli attack to preempt a nuclear Iran, questioning both leaders’ credentials for leading one and calling for an early election. However, before peaking, the opposition campaign is starting to backfire, debkafile reports. Netanyahu may count on a successful operation against Iran boosting him at the polls.

Yuval Diskin has a point about an Israeli attack’s potential for halting Iran’s race for a nuclear bomb – but not when he argues it would accelerate that race. Without an Israeli attack Tehran doubled the pace of its nuclear development in the past year. It is important to examine the ex-Shin Bet’s motives for echoing left-wing rhetoric against current Israeli leaders - especially as most Israeli left-of-center parties and protest groups are funded by foreign political interests.