Replacing Humpty Dumpty
By Reuven Koret   February 21, 2001

They say that to make an omelet you need to break some eggs. Since the February sixth elections, in the scrambled efforts to constitute a unity government, accompanied by incessant clucking, squawking and screeching, the Israeli political scene has come to resemble a chicken coop after an earthquake.

After two weeks of playing footsy with PM-elect Ariel Sharon, and getting vicious kicks under the table from all sides, including his erstwhile Party comrades, PM Barak, battered and bruised, finally appears to have fallen off his chair once and for all.

The signs of desperation were plain to see: the late night call to the leadership of the Awakening draft-the-yeshiva-boys movement, calling on them to oppose a unity government. The wholly unrealistic demands that Sharon exclude his stalwart National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu allies from a unity coalition.

These desperate attempts to throw the blame on "issues" disguise what all of Israel could see: Barak had lost the support of his own party. His reputation was in tatters. His support was shattered. He had become irreparably damaged goods.

Barak's eleventh hour re-resignation letter to Sharon last night dredged up a few feeble excuses. He didn't like Sharon's quip that Shimon Peres could also serves as Defense Minister. He didn't like the idea that he would be carrying out Sharon's security policies. He called this a breach of trust.

Despite the magnitude of his electoral loss, Barak apparently expected to be treated as an absolutely equal partner in policy decision-making.

Sharon went remarkably far in this direction. His offer to allocate top cabinet slots and equal representation to Labor was unprecedented in its generosity. But after two weeks of flip-flopping by Barak and infighting by Labor wannabes, Sharon and his allies appear to have had a belly-full.

The formation of a unity government is not yet off the table, but it would appear that the "next-Tuesday" deadline extended yesterday by Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, a key coalition negotiator for the Likud, is to be taken seriously. The timing is not coincidental, since it follows the Labor Central Committee scheduled for the previous evening.

Now that Humpty Dumpty has finally toppled once and for all from his precarious perch of being perpetually being between this and that, there still seems to be a consensus on both sides of the political fence that a broad coalition remains possible.

The deteriorating security situation makes it inevitable. The question is only whether the deed will be done sooner, before the next major terror attack, or after.

Sharon and a new Labor leadership still face a breakfast menu that has two only choices: either throw together a less-than-appetizing unity omelet or leave the Israeli political scene hopelessly scrambled. Either way the Israeli people will have no choice but to eat what they are served.

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