You can hardly equate some
clumsy political opportunism to two and a half decades of
carnage, surely? All politicians only think about themselves, otherwise they wouldn't be in
politics, after all.
As for the re-election and running for PM again, it wouldn't be the first time this has happened, either in Israel (remember the Peres administration?) or elsewhere. And it's not the first time Meretz have left a coalition floundering in mid-term, either, if you recall your history. The only consistent party, who repeatedly delivers on a goodly proportion of its campaign promises, is Shas. Don't tell me that's a good enough reason to vote for them*!
No, to me the choice is clear, and it's only too bad that the elections are happening at a time when I can't make it over to Israel and vote in them. I'd rather have a bunch of slightly shady and weak-chinned pseudo-intellectual lefties than Sharon The Impaler and his attendant band of hyenas any day.
* For the benefit of the non-Israeli reader, let's just say, very shortly, that to the average non-orthodox, young, educated Israeli, Shas is something very much like evil incarnate. I'm serious.