For liberal Israelis, Netanyahu's win is a reality check

[geek tragedy]

Last edited Sat Mar 21, 2015, 10:10 AM - Edit history (1)

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli liberals woke up after national elections with a demoralizing feeling: Most of the country, in a deep and possibly irreversible way, does not think like they do.


There had been a sense of urgency among moderate Israelis, and even an ounce of hope, that widespread frustration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's six straight years in office would lead voters to pull Israel away from what they perceive as its rightward march toward international isolation, economic inequality, and a dead end for peace with the Palestinians.

But as the results trickled in on Wednesday, they showed Likud with a shocking lead that has all but guaranteed Netanyahu a third consecutive term. Netanyahu called it a victory "against all odds." The liberals' optimism has been replaced with devastation — an infuriating belief that the masses may never understand that logic shows the current path is suicidal.

http://news.yahoo.com/liberal-israelis-netanyahus-win-reality-check-115401998.html

American liberals are realizing this now too--the Israeli liberals they meet, the ones who travel to or work in New York, and attend school here--are not representative of current day Israel, or its future.

Just like Pauline Kael didn't know anyone who voted for Nixon, most American liberals have never met and will never meet someone who voted Likud.

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. Netanyhu won only a quarter of the Israeli Vote.

which gave him the chance to form a government by bringing in other parties. Kulanu, a party pushing bank reform and economic solutions is the kingmaker and will get the finance ministry. To say they wokeup and found most of the country doesn't agree with them ignores the nature of Israel's parliamentary system.

[geek tragedy]

4. And those other parties include Jewish Home, Yisrael Beitenu, Shas,

etc etc.

Kulanu is a Likud splinter group, which means at best they are in the "pretend to be committed to negotiations, but expand the settlements" camp.

Likud alone got more votes than Zionist Camp and Meretz combined.

At the end of the day, the right continues to be dominant, and figures to get only more dominant as its demographics grow faster than what's left of the center left do.

[oberliner]

5. The Arab Israeli party finished in third place

You conveniently leave them out of your list.

The Joint List (Arab Israeli party) and Zionist Union together got significantly more votes than Likud.

Zionist Union, Joint List, Meretz, and Yesh Atid got over 40 percent of the vote. Add Kulanu, which is a party focused exclusively on economic issues and you are almost at 50 percent of the electorate.

If you take out the ultra-orthodox who essential vote in blocs for the religious parties, the majority of Israelis voted for parties that are center/center left (ZU, YA, Ku) or left/far left (Join List, Meretz).

The problem, as you mentioned, is that the ultra-orthodox tend to have more children than the secular population so their numbers are growing and their voting tendencies remain unchanged (and are likely to continue to remain unchanged).

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

6. Thank you for the dedicated response for the plausibility angle, ober.

We truly knew you could be counted on.



Truth be told, however, the Right will not mingle with the Joint List, and will do everything to keep them out.


We all know what Israel is. It's an open apartheid state. That's the problem.

[oberliner]

7. You've got it backwards

The Joint List will not mingle with any of the other parities. They have repeatedly and explicitly said so.

"Israel is a wonderful democracy with equal treatment of all citizens whether Arab or Jew." - Former President Jimmy Carter

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

8. Ah, yes, and Likrud would welcome them with open arms.

Thanks for the hasbarist spin, but your position is bankrupt.

It's you that have it backwards if you expect anybody to buy your lazy dime store BS any longer.


Israel IS an apartheid state. Israel's citizens have voted for the right. That's the truth

[Jefferson23]

9. Lifting a brief excerpt from Carter dated years ago with no citation is a desperate move for cover:

Speaking frankly about Israel and Palestine
By Jimmy Carter 2006

I signed a contract with Simon & Schuster two years ago to write a book about the Middle East, based on my personal observations as the Carter Center monitored three elections in Palestine and on my consultations with Israeli political leaders and peace activists.

We covered every Palestinian community in 1996, 2005 and 2006, when Yasser Arafat and later Mahmoud Abbas were elected president and members of parliament were chosen. The elections were almost flawless, and turnout was very high — except in East Jerusalem, where, under severe Israeli restraints, only about 2% of registered voters managed to cast ballots.

The many controversial issues concerning Palestine and the path to peace for Israel are intensely debated among Israelis and throughout other nations — but not in the United States. For the last 30 years, I have witnessed and experienced the severe restraints on any free and balanced discussion of the facts. This reluctance to criticize any policies of the Israeli government is because of the extraordinary lobbying efforts of the American-Israel Political Action Committee and the absence of any significant contrary voices.


It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine, to suggest that Israel comply with international law or to speak in defense of justice or human rights for Palestinians. Very few would ever deign to visit the Palestinian cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Gaza City or even Bethlehem and talk to the beleaguered residents. What is even more difficult to comprehend is why the editorial pages of the major newspapers and magazines in the United States exercise similar self-restraint, quite contrary to private assessments expressed quite forcefully by their correspondents in the Holy Land.

With some degree of reluctance and some uncertainty about the reception my book would receive, I used maps, text and documents to describe the situation accurately and to analyze the only possible path to peace: Israelis and Palestinians living side by side within their own internationally recognized boundaries. These options are consistent with key U.N. resolutions supported by the U.S. and Israel, official American policy since 1967, agreements consummated by Israeli leaders and their governments in 1978 and 1993 (for which they earned Nobel Peace Prizes), the Arab League's offer to recognize Israel in 2002 and the International Quartet's "Roadmap for Peace," which has been accepted by the PLO and largely rejected by Israel.
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-oe-carter8dec08-story.html

Jimmy Carter: ICC should pursue war crimes investigation against Israel, Hamas January 2015
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Jimmy-Carter-ICC-should-pursue-war-crimes-investigation-against-Israel-Hamas-387700

[sabbat hunter]

16. The joint list

is making a huge mistake by not giving support to a potential herzog led coalition. Arab parties have in the past supported coalitions (although not always joined them in giving that support). If they said that they would support a Herzog led coalition, it would make it far easier for him to form a coalition than Bibi.

[oberliner]

19. They have a historic opportunity to unite with liberal Zionists

And help stem the tide of the growing conservative movement in Israel.

[Scootaloo]

20. They have said nothing of the sort

They rejected a vote-sharing agreement with Meretz, due to short notice, opposition from some factions in the joint List, and the simple reality that the Joint List wouldn't get anything out of such an agreement.

This does not translate into rejecting the notion of joining a coalition. In fact the notion that the Joint List would run, then "refuse to join with other parties" is gibberish and nonsense.

But i'll tell you what. If the right-wing coalition fails to form (I doubt it will) and Herzog extends the offer to the Joint List (he won't), then we'll see what they do, and whether you're right or wrong. Until then, maybe stick with predicting Kadima landslides, hmmm? Or maybe try to discredit reporters based on their ethnicity some more?

[geek tragedy]

12. Kulanu splintered off from Likud.

Likud +YB+BY+Shas=51 votes for the extreme right. Not center right, extreme, explicitly racist right. Plus UTJ equals 57 votes.

[sabbat hunter]

13. shas has aligned

with both left wing and right wing governments. Their primary concern is to make sure that the students in their yeshivas get more money to not work, and are exempt from the military. Same for UTJ.
Shas was a part of Rabin's government prior to his assassination, and remained a part of the coalition once Peres took over.


and I believe that the JAL is making a mistake in not joining a potential coalition led by Herzog, or at least stating that they would support such a coalition. Doing so is cutting off their nose to spite their face.

[geek tragedy]

14. Shas are rightwing, Arab-hating, apartheid supporting bigots.

They do typically side with the winners, but they're reprehensible.

[sabbat hunter]

17. Most of shas supporters

are from Arab countries, and in many cases consider themselves Arab, speak arabic.

A former leader of Shas, Eli Yishai, did make anti-arab statements. But he left Shas and is no longer affiliated with them. He formed his own party for the past elections, which failed to make the threshold for seats in Knesset.

[Jefferson23]

2. Your link is missing, geek.

http://news.yahoo.com/liberal-israelis-netanyahus-win-reality-check-115401998.html

[geek tragedy]

3. thx, will update

[oberliner]

10. I'll be curious to see how liberal Palestinians react to the next Gaza elections

If and when Hamas ever allows such a thing to take place.

Going on ten years now...

[geek tragedy]

11. From "a light unto nations" to "better than Hamas" nt

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

15. I'd be curious how the hasbarists try to spin the Israeli apartheid state

into something that they can try and shamelessly blame on the Palstinians.

Oh, wait...

[Scootaloo]

21. "LOOK OVER THERE!"

Might as well go ahead and take the mask off, oberliner.

[oberliner]

22. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians seem to support right-wing parties in alarming high numbers

The recent Israeli elections bring that to light. I wonder if Palestinian elections would show the same phenomenon or if the conservative parties would suffer the kind of defeat most of us were hoping to see in Israel. Regrettably in Gaza, the party in power is so far right-wing that they have not even allowed elections to take place since they came in to power.

[Scootaloo]

23. Well, the Palestinians are a people living under the oppressive bootheel of a conquering nation

Of course they will favor groups that at least sound like they're going to shove that boot off of their necks.

The Israelis vote that way simply because they like being the ones putting boots on necks.

[sabbat hunter]

18. Interesting note

that both Bennett and Lieberman want the defense ministry, but Bibi wants to keep Ya’alon in that post, and that Lieberman would refuse to join the coalition if he is not given the defense ministry. That would cut Bibi's coalition to 61 mandates. And Bennett does not want to remain at the economic ministry (which is likely to go to Kahlon anyhow) so that would remove Jewish Home from the coalition as well. That would eliminate Bibi's coalition

http://www.timesofisrael.com/lapid-calls-on-pm-not-to-appoint-shas-leader-as-interior-minister/