Moreover he is criticizing Kadima Leader Tzipi Livni very harshly and threatens to split her party. Recently it is said that 11 MPs from Kadima negotiated with Netanyahu to “return” Likud. This is not the only threat that Livni faces. There are opponent voices rising out of Kadima. Netanyahu, who says that in those days which Israel has been living hard days due to the reasons like the rocket attacks of Hamas, Iran's nuclear program and the Goldstone Report that accuses Israel of committing war crime, Livni has to join the government as Menachem Begin did by joining Levi Eshkol's unity government prior to 1967 War, is labouring to make use of those opponent voices.
Former Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, aslo known as number two of Kadima, who ran for presidency of the party before, said that Livni lacks leadership capacity, cannot be prime minister and the party will dissolve unless primaries are not held in 3 months. Mofaz thinks that his chance for presidency is high. What is more is that he wants to join Netanyahu's coalition and to be the prime minister is among his long-term objectives. Livni thinks that Mofaz's real aim is to replace her. Livni, who accuses Mofaz of damaging the party and thereby serving Netanyahu's aim which is to weaken the opposition, refused Netanyahu's offer to join the coalition. Some of the MPs from Kadima said they found Netanyahu's offer as arrogant and insulting because he offered only to three ministerial posts to the party with the populous party in Knesset. However some Kadima MPs were not happy with Livni's decision. The group, who said that the only way to push Palestinian-Israeli Peace is to join the government, added that they found Livni's decision is selfishly and they will leave Kadima to rejoin Likud.
In order to understand the reasons under these developments it is necessary to touch upon Israeli domestic politics, Kadima Party and its internal dynamics and its differences with Likud.
In fact, one can see that this situation is natural to the structure of domestic politics in Israel. Due to the low threshold and proportional representative system the party structure is highly divided and this brings instability in domestic politics. Namely Israel has not a homogenous structure in domestic politics as opposite to conventional wisdom. Therefore Israel has always been administrated by coalition governments. Similarly, alliances among the parties, participation to coalitions or emergence of different parties inside of one party are normal for Israeli politics. Kadima is founded by Ariel Sharon by a split from Likud in 2005 but it does not have ideological difference with Likud.
After 2009 elections, Livni refused to join Netanyahu's coalition and Netanyahu formed the government with Labor and smaller parties Shas, Yisrael Beitaynu, Habayit Hayehudi. Livni said that her reason not to join Netanyahu's government is that he does not accept two-state solution but her real motivation was different. Livni thought that the government composed of extreme rightist parties could collapse by their withdrawal and the President can give Livni the responsibility to form the government. That is to say, it was not due to ideological difference. After all, the pretext of Livni for refusing to join the coalition has disappeared. Netanyahu in previous months accepted the two state solution although it does not address Palestinian demands.
There weren't many differences between Kadima and Netanyahu during their election campaigns. For instance both leaders were in favor of the continuation of talks with Mahmoud Abbas. While Netanyahu was expressing this indirectly as “ we are ready for talks for development of West Bank”, Livni's wording was more clear. There is not much difference after the elections. Livni performs her role to be the leader of main opposition party but she is not totally opposed to Netanyahu's policies. To illustrate, Livni is positive about prisoner exchange with Palestinians. Kadima approved settlement freeze decision as well. Livni is against evacuation of settlements and Jerusalem's division. Livni herself says that Kadima is a moral alternative to Likud and this can be perceived as the confession of that there isn't any ideological difference between Kadima and Likud.
To conclude, the reason of Netanyahu to follow Menachem Begin and Levi Eshkol's footsteps is not an approaching war surely. Israeli Maariv Newspaper reported that the real motivation of Netanyahu is to take revenge from Kadima which is founded by a split from Likud in 2005. A more realistic argument may be the fear that the inevitable peace process would lead extreme rightist government partners to leave the coalition as well as some Likud members and cause the government to collapse. Netanyahu may that he needs Kadima for which he says “we have commonalities more than differences” to keep his government alive. Another calculation of Netanyahu may be that he prefers a Livni inside, to a Livni outside and ready to replace him. These developments may have consequences on Israeli foreign policy since Israel does not have a proper foreign policy, which is rather highly affected by the developments in domestic politics.
