"100 Days, Zero Achievements” for Netanyahu’s Government

After 100 days in office, opposition leader Tzipi Livni criticizes Prime Minister Netanyahu for achieving nothing besides buckling under international pressure. Although Livni has continually supported a two-state solution, she claims that Netanyahu's recent support for this solution is unrelated to a change in belief, but rather solely to improve relations with the US.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Under the moniker "100 days, zero achievements," Kadima convened a press conference Wednesday to assess the performance of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government, in a political custom adopted from the United States. Livni told Army Radio earlier that Netanyahu bends under pressure and has no diplomatic vision.

"[Netanyahu] did not undergo an ideological shift like [former prime minister] Ariel Sharon, but he understood words can be taken back and you can zigzag in order to put relations with the US back on track," Livni told a reporter.

Livni criticized Netanyahu's embrace of the two-state solution, saying she believed the move was made for the sole purpose of improving relations with the US: "I didn't just say these words, I worked to implement them. We were attacked by the guys in Likud for it and now they, for their own reasons, out of a need to normalize relations with the United States and not out of faith, adopt this as a slogan," she said.

"Bibi can be squeezed, folded and pressed and he did not come prepared to govern," Kadima faction chair Dalia Itzik said in the press conference. "It is the same Bibi [we've seen in his first term], he cannot change, and in his speech in Bar Ilan University we saw a frightened and sweaty Bibi."

MK Meir Sheetrit attacked the government's economic policy. "I am today the most veteran member of Knesset and I can attest that the Netanyahu government's budget is the worst since 1981," Sheetrit said. "It was formulated in a slapdash and unserious manner. Netanyahu effaced Finance Minister Dr. Yuval Steinitz, and Steinitz must come forward and resign."

On Kadima joining the coalition with Likud, Ha'aretz reports Livni stating:

"I sat with Netanyahu before the creation of the government, and I understood that a significant change in world-view is necessary - but it is not there at the moment."

And The Jerusalem Post adds:

Asked on a contentious issue in Kadima, party No. 2 Shaul Mofaz's wish to join the coalition, Itzik said "if circumstances change and Netanyahu won't be Netanyauh, maybe there'll be a democratic discussion in Kadima. But now this is a bad government and there's no reason to join it."