This is a very interesting and informative interview with the Wall Street Journal and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, specifically the the bit about Iran.

Dealing With Iran
Israel’s former–and future?–prime minister talks about the threats to peace.

BY JAMES TARANTO
Saturday, May 26, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

NEW YORK–Benjamin Netanyahu runs a few minutes late for our Monday afternoon meeting. When he arrives in his midtown Manhattan hotel suite, he explains that he has just received word from home of the latest Palestinian war crime. “Hamas fired 15 rockets into Israel today. One of them hit a car, killed a woman,” says Mr. Netanyahu, the former Israeli prime minister and now leader of the opposition. The victim, 32-year-old Shirel Friedman, was on her way to see her mother.

For the 57-year-old Mr. Netanyahu, there is a sort of grim vindication in such attacks. He quit the government of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in August 2005, objecting to Mr. Sharon’s plan for unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. “I had a very big argument with him on this,” Mr. Netanyahu recalls. “He thought that we would have the right of free action–that we would garner international support for any reaction. I thought that is a very thin sheet of ice–the international community can turn against you as quickly as it turns for you–but the overwhelming fact is that the Muslim militants and Iran will find a new base, a few miles from Tel Aviv, with the ability to cover the south of the country and the center of the country with rockets.”

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Israel has sometimes been accused of being too democratic, and it seems that once again recent events have reinforced that charge. The recent vote for the Labor party chairmanship was too close to call and will have to be decided in a run-off on June 12th. What does this mean? Why is it important?

Israel has a parliamentary democracy consisting of three branches of government and lots of political parties (currently 12) and operates on the basis of coalition forming. Often times, these coalitions are tenuous and short lived resulting in elections being held on average every two years, hence the accusation.

Labor is one of the larger coalition partners in the current government so a change at the top will certainly have ramifications for the entire government. For more analysis we defer to the Jerusalem Post:

Barak defeats Ayalon but will have to face him in 2nd round
By GIL HOFFMAN

Former prime minister Ehud Barak and MK Ami Ayalon will face off in a June 12 runoff race to determine who will become Labor Party leader, according to the final count of votes announced Tuesday morning.

As counting the last votes finished, Barak led with 35.6 percent of the vote, followed by Ayalon with 30.6%, Defense Minister Amir Peretz with 22.4%, MK Ophir Paz-Pines 8% and MK Danny Yatom 2.7%.

For an analysis go here

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