Can Someone Teach Kai Bird Something About Israeli Politics?

I wasn't planning on wasting my time on fisking a NY Times Op-Ed piece on Israel, but someone pointed something out to me that was too amusing to ignore.

Kai Bird wrote an article called, "Israel, a Jewish Republic?" and in it he made an astounding declaration (you can skip the rest of his article).

Did you know that Tzipi Livni is the leader of Hatnua -- a small "center-right party"?

I'm sure that whoever remains in the now defunct Hatnua party would be as surprised by that statement as I was.

Certainly, Amir Peretz, the former labor union boss, who would be quite comfortable sitting in Russia's politburo, would be shocked to learn he is a member of a right-wing party.

I don't believe there is a person who was a member of the Hatnua party who would consider the party right-wing.

And even in her left-wing party, Livni was considered to be far left. The same as when she was in the Kadima party, which she left.

I only point out her Kadima connection, because when Livni was the head of the center-left Kadima party, it was Livni's own party in 2011 that introduced a now-considered right-wing "National Bill", which 20 Kadima members signed on.

Not only that, but as I recall, at that time the bill had support from left-wing Labor MKs too.

True, Livni killed her own party's proposition, but that's because she is farther left than the Labor party.

The NY Times has turned into a satire paper.