SILVAN THE LEFTIST

Likud MK Silvan Shalom is dropping out of the leadership race. With the way he talks, I'd say he deserves it:

Likud MK Silvan Shalom announced at a press conference in Tel Aviv Monday morning that he was dropping out of the September 3 primary race against current party chairman Binyamin Netanyahu.

Shalom said he could not be a partner in the primary elections if they were held as Netanyahu wanted. "What's happening in the Likud today is a farce typical of the Baath regime in Syria," Shalom said. "Is that what we want to imitate?"

How insulting can he be? Plus, how leftist can he be? The answer lies in the following:

Members forcing decisions on the party had already driven out several prominent Likud members, he argued, citing former MKs Dan Meridor, David Levy, and Yitzhak Mordechai as examples.

And two out of three of those examples are definitely leftists: Meridor, who went with Kadima, and Mordechai, who undermined Netanyahu's government a decade ago. It should be noted that Mordechai was convicted of sexual misconduct, and was certainly an abusive womanizer, so I think the citing of him as an example is more than a bit tacky.

Now, please kindly resign from the Knesset, Silvan, and spare us the excess leftism in disguise.