Majadele to become first Arab minister

[eyl]

Labor MK Raleb Majadele will be appointed science and technology minister, Defense Minister and Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz announced yesterday, making him the first Arab minister in Israeli history.

Majadele will replace Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz, who resigned roughly two months ago in the wake of the addition of right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu to the coalition.

"This is a historic development and undoubtedly it will bring about an improvement in the relationships among different groups in Israel," Peretz said yesterday.

Majadele began his Knesset tenure in mid-2004, and has since then served as the chairman of the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee. He is currently also a member of the Science and Technology Committee, the Committee on Foreign Workers, and the Labor, Welfare, and Health Committee.

In the past, Majadele also served as the secretary of the "Noar Haoved Vehalomed" (Labor youth) movement in Baka al-Garbiyeh and as the secretary of the Regional Workers' Council.

Haaretz

[Phx_Dem]

1. Very positive development

even if it was done for mostly political reasons.

[Shaktimaan]

2. As opposed to all of those cabinet members

in the Knesset who were appointed for non-political reasons.

That's like saying, "Sure that guy won the presidential election. But it was only for political reasons."

[Poll_Blind]

3. I disagree, this appointment is specifically Peretz's attempt at...

...insurance from Ofir Paz-Pines and others (read more, this message is pretty sloppy but chock full of da trut). Labor's tearing itself up over how to deal with Lieberman. The Peretz group are fine working with Olmert's government even with the extremely stigmatizing Lieberman as part of the coalition. Peretz is also sucking in the race for leadership of the party, needs something to boost his ratings. Ofir Paz-Pines says Olmert's inclusion of Lieberman is just too much for Labor to deal with- that a line has to be drawn somewhere and Ofir believes that withdrawl from the Olmert's government is the reaction that Labor should take. The one who's probably going to take leadership of Labor is Ami Ayalon. I haven't read much on him but he seems like a straight shooter for the most part. I hope he or Paz-Pines wins it.

  Sorry very rough, I don't feel like doing the usual link-a-fied message. If you Google Peretz and Paz-Pines and Lieberman or Ami Ayalon you should come up with the exact news stories/articles/editorials which describe this dynamic in much more clarity, including some very public statements by Paz-Pines on Peretz's appointment of Majadele. Also, there was another guy in line for the position (don't recall if he was Jew or Arab but guessing on the side of Jew) in the party who Peretz undercut.

  Peretz is trying to show how much he cares about Arabs and it's too little, too late. He's also gone ballistic when footage was shown a few days ago of an Arab being beaten by a settler, IIRC.

HINT: It's not hard to find video of settlers attacking/harassing Arabs in Israel.

  So why the very public outrage now, why the appointment? That's the politics I figured Phx_Dem was talking about, and he's right on both counts: It is a good thing, but it's mostly Peretz's doing (he appointed the guy). Peretz, who wants to hang on to power whether it's working with Olmert's Lieberman-poisoned government or appointing an Arab to show what a great guy he is (not like anyone's buying it) is flailing as he goes down.

  I wanted to post something more detailed and a little better looking but I assumed that regular readers on both sides of the fence would look a little deeper into this historic decision and discover (without much work) that it's not what it seems to be. It sucks that it's not, though, but there it is.

PB