here are the things left wing media doesn't tell you:
1. it's not the choice between "peaceful left" and "aggressive right" in Israel. there is not a party there that is going to let terrorists kill Israelis of any faith or color , launch rockets into Israel or attack soldiers without consequences. left or right, they are sworn to protect their citizens from terror and war. so don't fool yourself, please.
2. lower percentage of Muslims showing up at polling stations this time is lesson that Arabic parties should learn, Israeli Arabs and their interests have never really been their first priority, all those parties care about is Gaza, Hamas and their never ceasing attempts to destroy Israel.
2
Escaping charges of collusion with the Russians, Trump will thump his chest with pride for colluding with Netanyahu. For a man so seemingly hell-bent on protecting America from Terrorism, this election assures such dangers will increase for the United States as Palestinians and Arabs are once again marginalized by the politics of Trump and Netanyahu. To many Muslims in the Middle-East, there is not a nickel's difference between Israel and and the U.S.
1
Trump's election sent a message to the world: You can be racist, compromised and corrupt, but as long as you hate brown people, you can still get elected.
2
Fantastic news. Now let’s get Trump re-elected.
2
Disturbing to see Israel join the U.S. on a growing list of "democracies" where criminality is no disqualification for higher office.
3
"A colossal victory"?? Netanyahu has adopted The Art of Dictator Speak. What's in the water there at Wharton?
2
Beto needs to start looking for a job - a REAL job.
Congratulations to Bibi on winning,and condolences to the Palestinians on losing.
2
I'm with Rivlin. This wicked man Netanyahu with his wicked cohort of Lieberman et al have stolen the soul of Israel and emptied my last vessel of empathy and patience with a nation that I thought for decades to share enlightenment values. Until now, I've not believed in the boycott and divestment movement. But boy have things changed now.
2
@Tristan T
The Palestinians are conducting genocide against the Jews. The Palestinian Authority pays people to murder Jews. The more Jews they kill, the more money they get. That's genocide! Why is there BDS against the Israeli victims of genocide, but no BDS against the Palestinians who are practicing genocide?
2
@Tristan T
You are aware that Lieberman wanted to oust Bibi?
There used to be a question that many Jews would ask when some announcement or fact was mentioned.
That question struck me as being relevant to this story's conclusion.
"But, is it good for the Jews?"
Well, is it? Guess only time will tell!
Reading the comments, it is apparent that none of the commentators has any idea what it is like to live in a country that faces an existential threat. It is very easy to sit in your living room in New York and judge the Israeli people for voting in Netanyahu once again, but the level of security that they feel under his rule is undeniable.
When their children put on an army uniform at 18, rather than university sweatshirt, that is the only thing that matters.
6
This election result was disappointing, but not because Netanyahu and his band of racists, warmongers, crooks, and religious fanatics won again. The real disappointment came during the campaign, when it became clear that there is no significant constituency for peace (or even peaceful coexistence) with the Palestinians amongst the Jews of Israel. On the issue of peace, there was no difference between Netanyahu and Gantz: neither is interested. Many Arab-Israelis weren't interested in participating in this election, and for good reason. For them, it was basically a choice between two different terminal diseases.
The two state solution is so dead that not even Miracle Max could bring it back to life. The violent subjugation of the Palestinians will now accelerate, as more of their land will be stolen, more of their rights will be ignored and revoked, and more of their people will be killed and imprisoned. Oppression has become habit; democracy and rule of law have become minor inconveniences easily circumvented. The path of conquest and apartheid is just too appealing, since the direct costs are borne by someone else.
Kibitzing Trump and Israel has become a full-time occupation.
1
What is the difference between Netanyahu and China's Xi Jinping? This is Netanyahu's fifth term and Xi Jinping is the dictator of China without term limits. One is an elected dictator and the other is self-declared dictator?
1
So now the picture is clarified. Over the next few months there is going to be a clash of civilizations. The neanderthals will be represented by Trump, Kushner, and Netanyahu, with the Saudi MBS (alias "the butcher) in the background. The opposition will be the civilized people of the world who live in a rules-based society, place a high value on human rights, and seek peaceful co-existence.
The battlefield will be defined by Trump's so-called "Deal of the Century". Political lives will either be lost or advanced depending on the side chosen.
6
This is simply mirroring US elections.
The fringe decided: the right fringe voted.
The left/Arab fringe stayed away from voting either because their voting was suppressed or they were demotivated. Just like poor African Americans and Latin Americans in the US.
1
Netanyahu's win is great news and, hopefully, represents the death knell for the absurd 2 state solution. Now the reelected Prime Minister will need to work with Egypt on a plan to improve the dismal living conditions in Gaza. Unfortunately, the terrorists of Hamas have a direct interest in keeping the populace captive and miserable, and blaming Israel for their own evil deeds. Israel, the insurance policy for all Jews facing antisemitism, progroms, and worse, will continue to thrive under the masterful leadership of Bibi Netanyahu and the Likud party. Moreover, the Arab populace in the soon to annexed Area C will finally thrive away from the corrupt Abbas, as he moves into the 15th year of his 4 year term.
4
Israel has got a wheel in the ditch... what's going on????
1
Israel is literally surrounded by countries that would like to see their country and all the people of their faith are wiped from the earth forever. They chose their leader with this knowledge at the forefront of their mind. When you are surrounded by bullies you pick a strong man. Congratulations Israel.
6
I always find it odd when staunch Israel supporters say that Palestinians want to deny Israel the right to exist yet they are the ones denying Palestine the right to exist. It’s typical “projection”, which Trump and his buddy Bibi do all the time. Of course they get away with it because there are hateful people who believe them.
1
The Palestinians have yet to bring forth a Mandela. It’s hard, sometimes, to imagine that they ever will. The Arab world is not known for the vastness of its political imagination.
But things may change. The sea level is rising, and prayer won’t hold it back.
1
dairyfarmersdaughter writes that the U.S. should reconsider our support for Israel, as we don't have to blindly support a government that disenfranchises so many of its citizens. I agree. And while we're at it, we need to reconsider support for a few other governments as well--like the absolute monarchy of Saudi Arabia.
And perhaps we need to clean up our own act, re voter suppression, gerrymandering, and the permanent disenfranchisement of former felons who have served their sentences but aren't permitted full citizenship.
6
The world is becoming a cruel place with people electing leaders like Trump and Netanyahu and other extremists.
5
An absolute disgrace. One criminal propping up another. We're in for a replay next year. Extreme right wing groups coalescing with Netanyahu. Too bad more Israelis haven't learn the lessons of what right wing extremism can do to a nation and a people. Birds of a feather....
4
I'll never understand why America supports the biggest welfare state on Earth. Imagine the good all those billions could do in our own country.
2
There is no debate in ISRAEL about peace with the Palestinians. Only the West thinks that peace is possible, ignoring that the Palestinians turned down peace efforts one time after another and refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of a Jewish State.
6
We do refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of a Jewish State. Just like we refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Islamic State. We believe in democracy and freedom in the USA.
One people, one nation, one leader.
Exclude the ethnically or religiously impure.
Where have we heard that before?
5
A sad day for peace in the Middle East. With Israel re-electing Bibi Netanyahu who has sworn to annex most of the West Bank and is also about to be indicted, corruption and extremism have been ratified. It's frightening for this Holocaust family member to see voters approve a man taking them in a direction that will enhance the likelihood of a larger Middle East war that's already engulfed in two proxy wars. I can only hope that this is not an ominous portend of what will happen here in 2020.
4
2.8 million Palestinians in The West Bank.
Annex the West Bank and do what with the Palestinians there ?
Drive them out? Buy them out? Incorporate them as citizens?
Around 21% of Israeli citizens are Arab
The West Bank population of Arabs would add another ~25%
That’s pretty close, 46% Arab.
There’s a mish mosh of different Christians, 3%
49% non Jews, 51% Jews, who obviously don’t vote in unison.
If that’s how it ends, wouldn’t it be a pip if the Christians there ended up being the critical vote. Their Green Party spoilers.
They’d all have to collaborate, kinda like Lebanon.
2
Israel is sadly a prime example (though certainly not the only one) that where power is beholden to no one, might makes right.The world is walking past the Palestinian people like so many homeless on the street. It's always someone else's job to help.
20
Netanyahu's political messaging up until the election kept two ultra right parties from getting any Knesset seats, allowing for a very stable Israeli government going forward as far as the coalition. Ultra-religious and Ultra-right are not the same. Current challenges will continue ( Palestinians and Diaspora Jews relationships for example) but Israel otherwise will continue its upward trajectory overall.
I do see a change in the next election to a blue and white type party.(center-left) The concept of the Labor party or any true left wing platform is gone however. The Iran-Hezbollah-Hamas security threat precludes the success of a left wing government.
10
While Netanyahu leads Israel, this once staunch supporter of the Zionist ideal will WITHHOLD overt support for that country and it's government. I will not be party to assisting those that rub shoulders with tyrants like Viktor Orban or count Trump among their friends and disregard respectable and important world leaders like President Obama in order to speak before Congress at the invitation of John Boehner. This is NOT the Israel of my forebears and most certainly NOT the Israel of Ben-Gurion and the country's founders.
8
When Bibi keeps his promise to annex West Bank settlements it will be a great move towards peace in the region. In the long run annexation will be beneficial for the West Bank Arabs. The Arabs employed by Israelis enjoy equal pay and all other "perks" the same as their Jewish co-workers receive. Those Arabs who accept annexation will see their lives improve dramatically.
1
The reason why Israelis returned a right-wing hawkish PM to office is because of the collapse of the two-state solution. In 1947-48, the Arabs rejected the partition while the Jews accepted it. Since then, the Israelis wanted two-state, but the Palestinians did not. They could have had a state, most recently in 2000. But the Palestinians have a right to their narrative. And, their narrative is to have a state which includes the sovereign state of Israel. This can and will NEVER happen. As a result Netanyahu is going to work toward isolating the Palestinians and making their cause more and more remote. This is what the Israelis want; this is what they got; this will make them more secure in order to avoid falling into the trap of having their nation attacked.
5
Tel Aviv is one of the most multicultural places I’ve been to with Arabs and Jews living together peacefully. The covered Orthodox and modest Palestinians in burkini even share the same women’s beach.
Netanyahu makes the world see Israel as a much worse place than it actually is, just like Trump does with the US. They both need conflict and fear for their political survival.
5
They always use Sderot as an example of why the people of Israel need Netanyahu to keep them safe. It is a small city of 25k with a decreasing population. The government should be actively moving people away from this dangerous border town instead of using their fear as an exploitative tool to gain support from the nation at large. Instead the government infuses it with millions in economic support. If Netanyahu really wanted to keep his people safe, he'd get those kids out of there and have them raised some place away from the border. It's so irresponsible.
2
@Deborah Giattina
Way to blame the victim!
This is a warning sign for Americans. Netanyahu was under indictment for corruption and still won. This is the kind of power chest-thumping nationalism, cult of personality, and control of the machineries of authority carries. Once guys like that get entrenched in power, itms hard to get them out no matter how openly corrupt they are.
You think any of Trump’s out-in-the-open corruption and abuse of power will lose him any votes? You think he’ll be impeached? Prosecuted? Think again. “I can shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue not not lose any votes.” He was right. His grip on power tightens every day.
2020 will be an uphill fight those who want to save America from the rampant ignorance and abuses. We can’t fool ourselves with the idea that Trump’s base will abandon him. People who see the danger Trump represents need to set aside their differences and vote for the eventual Democratic nominee, whoever that might be. Voter turn-out will be crucial. Donate if you can afford it. Volunteer if you can. Vote, vote, vote.
6
As they said in Astoria, Queens, NYC some years ago:
(A) vote early,
(B) vote often (you recommend three times), and,
(C) vote for the candidate of their choice (the voting machines are rigged so it does not matter how you vote).
Then run for cover!
Apparently, citizens of Israel and the United States think corruption is a great trait for their elected leaders. Is that saying more about the leader or the countries?
6
I grieve for Israel.
I pray we don't make the same mistake in 2020.
The center will not hold...
4
@Christopher Don’t pray, do something about it. Democracies only work if citizens actively participate. Voting is just the beginning. Trump’s eventual opponent will need a lot of help, so will those trying to oust Trump’s cronies from the Senate, the House, and state governments everywhere. They’ll need donations and volunteers. Americans can’t be spectators or passive participants in elections that decide their future.
1
@citybumpkin
I'm not praying (I'm an atheist. BTW). I am grieving for the perilous (perhaps fatal) choice Israeli's have made.
Besides voting and donating, I am active in politics (as I was in 2016 when Trump won).
I agree with you in principle, but I'm not sure what in my comment you are responding to.
A criminal won and a criminal lost.
Injustice becomes more entrenched every day.
3
Why are Israelis doing this to themselves?
Voting for an indicted politician who ought to be un-encumbering Israel by stepping aside and sorting out his own personal business out of the public's gaze.
Israelis ought to know what kind of person he is: this imho is possibly the saddest, sorriest day in Israel's history. Because there is just no excuse.
5
As an Israeli living in the US, one reads the newspaper coverage and comments here in disbelief.
On 9/11 the US had four airplanes hijacked that were then turned into muddled murdering about 3,000 people. In the aftermath of that, the US:
1. Invaded Afghanistan killing thousands
2. Invaded Iraq killing thousands
3. Commandeered the Pakistani military
4. Changed the banking system around the world
5. Changed air travel for every one.
The costs imposed by the US to deal with the murder of its citizens is measured in trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives. The vast majority of people of the tens of millions who bear that cost have zero to do with what happened.
Israel, on the other hand, has acted to curb violence from the very communities that attacker her over decades. Those attacks came in the form of invading troops, thousands of missles, and suicide bombers. Those attacks against Israel caused greater loss of human life to its citizens than 9/11 by far.
Somehow, in that context, the NYT and many of its readers, find endless space to print criticisms of how Israel defends itself. The position is corrupt: rooted in arrogance and perhaps even racism.
11
@SG I suggest Israel should indignantly refuse the billions in military and financial aid from the United States in protest.
3
@SG There were millions of us who protested Bush's drive to go to war with Iran, who have fought to end wars and stop corruption in our government. At the time, fear mongering, radio and TV shows drove the message that Iraqis had attacked us, not Saudi terrorists, and that we were not safe unless the US invaded Iraq and killed Saddam, paving the way for war. The people in government responsible for the lies and propaganda were Republican. These same tactics are being employed yet again in our country's challenge with immigration.
Israel is in the hands of similar delusional men who think that war is the only answer and who love power. They feel morally superior to their neighbors, and wronged beyond measure, when they are the ones with the guns and the nuclear bombs to harm any in the region who oppose them.
Guns and bombs cannot bring peace. They never have and they never will. Peace can only be obtained through compromise and that requires diplomacy, something, unfortunately, Trump and Netanyahu do not value or understand, since neither of them are democratic.
3
@citybumpkin
I have no issues with the United States or what it has done to protect to protect its citizenry.
I have a problem with the Left applying a double standard.
The Trump Kushner administration must be very pleased.
4
Though I’m not normally prone to conspiracy theories, Netanyahu is the tip of Trump’s anti-Iran spear.
As such, in my view, it is entirely possible that these two will find some pretext in the coming months to initiate war with Iran in order to help Trump’s re-election. It’s the old tail wagging the dog scenario.
Trump will do anything to maintain his grip on power, and war with Iran (to keep the world safe from terrorism) will make his trope that Democrats are anti-Semitic look like child’s play.
In addition to torching any hope for a two-state solution, Netanyahu’s re-election certainly keeps that scenario in play — whereas his defeat would have taken it off the table.
If Bibi follows through in his pledge to annex the West Bank, I can only hope the Saudi’s and other Trump allies among the Arab states will decide against enabling such a dangerous ploy.
If we really want to get depressed, we can wonder if Netanyahu’s victory presages a Trump win in 2020. If that happens, Canada will start looking like an even better place to live than it already does. Double Ugh!
1
To more correctly paraphrase the mayor of the southern Israeli city "...imagine if [Indians] were threatening Manhattan with rockets? You would want to destroy them."
We destroyed them anyway. And that is likely the fate of Palestinian/Arab culture in Israel. Maybe there will be a Disney character to remind us.
5
“A colossal victory”—
He sounds just like his election-interfering-buddy Trump.
9
Next up a war with Iran you know win win and one has to look at how certain nations of the West and Israel are no better than a man from a certain country in the 1930's was. Maybe time for Israelis to take a hard look in the mirror at what they have become. It is all singing and dancing, but soon new legislation that will absolve Bibi of being charged with anything. Israel on the low road with him and spare me the morality talk like Trump there is none. The world is on a path much like the 1930's which will cost the lives of millions and maybe what Pence and Pompeo and Bolton look forward to Rapture. Big disappointment for them when they are just dead. In about a year the question will be like always when the war breaks out how could this happen the propaganda has started, Gee, maybe it will be they are searching for the missing WMD. Bibi in bed with several parties that are onthe US terrorist list. By the way Trump was involved with laundering money for the Iran Guard through one of his projects. Democrats who are no better when the war starts will whine about it being wrong, but then we have to back the boys. In Vietnam which was another win win that I was part of from the first day it spun out of control. All these military plans are great until the war starts - check out World War I and II. Being an American the real history is we have been on wrong side for a good part of our history. Now, afraid to speak before another war starts. Gutless. Jim Trautman
13
Odd that so many commenters think Israel is a theocracy and should be boycotted even after a fair and safe election. Arabs are represented in the Government and vote as Israeli Citizens. Flaws and all Israel struggles like every democracy with good and bad outcomes. Morocco, China, Turkey or Russia – all of which are internationally considering occupying powers are OK to trade with but Jews no? Jews seem to be your problem not Israel..
10
This is a great example of “whataboutism.”
Which Trump and his ilk deal in well.
1
@2ndSouth “OK to trade with but Jews no?”
Oh, I’m sorry. under the impression Israel was a multi-ethnic multi-religious state, not just Jews. Or no?
And also that boycott does not target Jewish-owned businesses. It targets businesses with ties to Israel, regardless of the religion or ethnicity of the people who own or run it. Or are you pretending Israel owns the entirety the Jewish identity now?
1
@2ndSouthFrankly I have grown more than a little tired of because one is against the policies of Israel makes one against Jews. I am against a fascist government and people who refuse to see what they have become. People walled in checkpoints - gee just like Mr. Trump wants to where Palestinians goods go rotten Bibi like Mr Trump corrupt I guess so what if he made $4 million from a submarine deal to Egypt. For your information my family contains Jews, Muslims, African Americans, Hispanics, Puerto Ricans, Poles, Lithuanians. Jewish relatives have no use for Bibi and what will become a major war with Iran for the reason he wants it. I love how they steal land on the Occupied Territories what exactly does that word mean. I served in the Marines when Israeli attacked the USS Liberty she was only flying two large American flags and killed 34 sailors and Marines. She had gathered the chatter that Israel had started the war and attacked first. I love and respect the Jewish culture and heritage and it is beyond belief what happened in the Death Camps. Several of our relatives lost family, but don't imply I and anyone that is against Bibi is because we hate Jews. Bibi is in bed with at least one party that is on the US Terrorist List that is a fact. Don't worry the US will continue to turn a blind eye even the Democrats because of lets say what it is politics. Because the West did not intervene to stop the Death Camps the guilt card has been played forever. Jim Trautman
2
Great victory for Bibi. A great day for Israel and the Middle East.
6
Is Israel being turned into its own version of a “Saudi Arabia”?
9
@srwdm
When was the last time Saudi Arabia had a raucous, freewheeling, cliffhanger HONEST election for the head of its government?
7
@Terry Plasse
Did you say “honest“?
And is not Israel heading toward a South Africa scenario?
1
Did anyone else notice the "Trump flag" in the crowd? The connection between these two corrupt megalomaniacs is more clear than ever. We US citizens now have yet another reason to rid our good nation of this truly terrible man and his absolutely abysmal cabinet in 2020.
12
So, did Russia interfere in this vote as well? Was social media an influencer for voters?
4
And the world, our only home, continues to lurch to the extreme right..major bad news.
8
@paul S
If you keep winning elections, by definition you can’t be extreme but rather you are the mainstream of the political spectrum.
The Israelis keep electing this man. The right, extreme right and religious right are winning increasingly greater proportions of the electorate. The two-state solution is dead. Israel is consolidating as a state with unequal classes of citizens. We are witnessing the moral disintegration of a previously democratic state and the descent to greater conflict.
8
Could someone tell me why, as an American, I should care? And don't give me the "the Middle Easts' only democracy" line. The Prime Minister of the Middle Easts' only democracy came to our country and attacked our sitting president from the lectern in our House of Representatives.
11
Imagine, now the commenters can relish more years of attacking Bibi, blaming the people of Israel, while ignoring that to Palestinians, whoever wins is irrelevant. Hamas will still exploit their population cynically, Abbas will not hold an election, and the Palestinian people are not going to let us know that they desire a negotiated peace, because most of them are brainwashed to think Israel will disappear and why should they compromise.
Blame the UN, blame the BDS movement, and blame the self righteous Israel haters, and commenters, for not telling the Palestinian people they have to work on a permanent agreement with Israel. No bypass solution, no easy fix. Where is your genuine concern for their welfare? Then communicate how negotiations are the only path to independence. And sooner than later.
15
Israel is a Democracy? I find no term limits a bit contrary to a democratic society.
10
@Tracy
There are no term limits for most elective offices in the US. Do you find that contrary to democracy?
I voted yesterday, not for Likud. I do think there should be term limits for a lot of offices, including many in the Old Country (US). But that doesn't make it non democratic.
3
@Terry Plasse
Thank you for sharing your opinion. Yes, I do believe that representation of the people is best served with the risk of being voted out of office. We know that today with voter suppression tactics and such, our democracy is threatened. The US president is limited to two terms. Our congress is not limited. It is my personal opinion that congress should be limited considering the corporate influence we now endure and certainly, this has been tossed around before.
As far as history, FDR, in the 1940s was the only pres to be elected to more than two terms. The previous stepped down. A precedent was set and maybe there was more politeness or consideration for what the founding fathers had in mind for our Democracy. After FDR, the office was limited to two terms.
Why do you refer to the US as 'Old Country'? Just curious.
I wouldn't be surprised if your voter turnout is better than ours.
@Tracy
It’s the opposite. Term limits deny the will of the electorate. I think you have it backwards.
Another country heard from. Another mess.
7
In the words of Trump: so sad. Now we are guaranteed a few more years of paying for weapons; raising more Palestinian children without hope , but with hatred, a little corruption from Bibi, and of course no closer to a peaceful settlement. Where are the Ben Gurions, the Begins.....
9
This should serve as a lesson to any American who thinks that being under investigation will stop a strong leader from winning reelection.
Tribalism and nationalism will 'Trump' ethics.
2020 is even less of a time than was 2016 to nominate an identity candidate. Vote for change. Vote the message---not the messenger. Or face another four years of Trump.
5
There seem to be very few, if any, real democracies that have a president for 5 terms--countries like Russia come to mind, or Iraq, Saudi Arabia or Iran. Perhaps Venezuela, Panama, Angola, Ghana or Nigeria. So, is Israel in fact, a constitutional democracy, or is it perhaps an effective military theocracy vying for a position in the leagues of the world's most corrupt? Moreover, in all cases of multi-term political monopolies, there is malfeasance either inherent, or lurking behind the election facade (anxiety of election interference, anyone?). Given Israel's utter dependence on (or co-option of) Western resources, otherwise, it appears this political autocracy is sanctioned in fact by those supporting entities, or by special interests within them. That is equally troubling--perhaps more so. Otherwise with an American military base in the Negev, and US military finance without effective controls, the GWOT plan will continue with war likely erupting and Iran as the center of gravity. Netanyahu and his backers it seems won't be satisfied until (more) blood is soaking the entire Middle East. All they need is a willing US. So far, we don't disappoint, regardless of who is in office. Regards.
9
When the topic emerges, or comes up, for several decades now, I tell people that Franklin Roosevelt was the greatest historical person in history, and certainly should be the man of the last millennium.
He came to power during the middle of the greatest international crisis in history, which lead to WWII. He solved the Great Depression with the New Deal (a stable, mixed economic system which became the norm for the free world and gave one billion people a middle class existence) and then defeated the Fascism and left behind a legacy of the most golden of Golden Ages - 1945-1972 - a liberal Golden Age.
Roosevelt was opposed by greedy selfish psychopaths and malignant narcissist every step of the way.
The malignant & psychopathia never reform or go away, and are constantly plotting and coniving to over throw the system. Nixon, Joe McCarthy, Reagan, Clinton, Bush Jr, Rove, McConnell, Trump have worked tirelessly to overthrow what Roosevelt left us on behalf of the greedy, selfish, paranoid malignant and psychopathic.
In Israel, they have Netanyahu who is doing the same. His mania created the environment that lead to the assassination of Rabin - so much so that Rabin’s widow refused to shake Netanyahu’s hand at the funeral.
I remember telling my Jewish friend’s back in the 1990s when Netanyahu first became PM, that if I was Israeli with a back door out of Israel, I would be taking it at that point in time.
Netanyahu cares only about himself in the present. Sad times.
10
To all those who wanted to interfere with a foreign election I ask you respect the results and not show yourselves to be hypocrites who condemn Russia on one hand and do the same thing on the other hand.
7
Liberals and Democrats up in arms about Russian interference in our election, but conspicuously silent about Trump’s interference in Israel’s election to get his buddy Bibi elected. It’s about time that Liberals and Democrats wake up and realize that their blind support for Israel is only helping the extreme right.
13
Trump, Putin, Netanyahu.
That should be enough to scare the wits out of every person on the planet. They want WW3.
WE THE PEOPLE must not let it happen. We must not let them break up the EU. We must not let them cause hate-anger-fear-chaos and destruction in OUR United States of America.
Now, more than every before the center of civlization must fight with everything we have to keep OUR lives and world secure from the war-power-money inherited/stolen weath 0.01%.
12
Authoritarian, nationalist brutalists on every continent...
What could possibly go wrong?
9
Well, none on Australia or Antarctica, so only five of the seven continents really.
2
"Regardless of the final result, the election illustrated the deep divisions under Mr. Netanyahu, 69, who has led Israel for a decade of relative security and prosperity."
Unless you are a Palestinian whose property was stolen by the first Israeli government or who is now living in exile from your home or who lives unrepresented because you are in the Bantuland of the Occupied Territories. Other than that, prosperity and peace.
9
It’s nation building. What’s the problem ?
1
Israel now appears to be in the same fix as us: obstruction of justice charges here, corruption charges there are all that’s left standing between us and the fate that awaits. In the overall order of things it will be interesting to see where our rules written on paper will stand compared to stone tablets.
2
Reality Check maybe usa should take count an have manditory voting an public service in arm forces. Freddom isnt free an its not a free for all where crime is accepted way life.
Israel is a country where 6 plus million Jews rule over 6 plus million Palestinians, two thirds of whom are voteless stateless people in the land of their birth.
To describe this arrangement as a "democracy" is obscene.
Perhaps more importantly, it is unsustainable. Israel tries to conceal the bare facts of the situation by disavowing responsibility for Gaza, but the fact of the matter is that Israel controls Gaza's airspace, coastal waters, commerce, electricity and more. Even without Israeli boots on the ground, Gaza effectively remains Israeli-occupied territory.
For better or for worse, the two-state solution is dead. It died long before Netanyahu declared his intentions of annexing much of the West Bank. It was slowly strangled by the construction of settlements which always had making a Palestinian state impossible as their intended purpose.
Dependent on Israel for their finances, the Palestinian Authority will presumably continue to pretend that a two-state solution is somehow achievable until it expires. But the Palestinian PEOPLE know otherwise and it is only a matter of time before they shift their demands to a single bi-national democratic state based on one person, one vote.
The current fascist drift in Israeli politics is alarming and we should expect an intensification of efforts to further dispossess or ethnically cleanse the Palestinians.
In the end, though, the moral arc of the universe does bend towards justice and the Palestinians will win be free.
15
Maybe Israel ( and Egypt by the way) should lift the blockade on Gaza and let in all the guns, rockets and explosives they want so they have a fair chance to overthrow Israel.
3
Unfortunate. Actually, much worse than “unfortunate”. Another egotistical madman put in power to aggrandize himself.
11
The Israelis voted in somewhat equal numbers for Likud and Blue and White.
But what seems to be missing form the analyses is the basic natures of these parties...
They are both right wing, and appear to be driven more by personalities than ideology.
And what becomes apparent as the years pass is just how poor Arafat's choice to turn down a Palestinian state when it was offered really was.
50
@The Owl
The claim that Israel offered Arafat a state is a lie. Read the reporting on The Palestine Papers -- the leak of internal documents from the peace process -- by The Guardian and Al Jazeera if you don't understand this. This was a very big story in the Middle Eastern and European press at the time, but it got almost no coverage in the United States.
Israeli leaders always talk about the "generous offers" that they made to the Palestinians, but the details of these offers are always vague and it turns out that they were never made in a detailed format to the Palestinians.
The Palestine Papers revealed that the leadership of the Palestinian Authority offered to concede on every point of contention -- the right of Palestinian refugees to return, the status of East Jerusalem, and unfair "land swaps" that would give Israel sovereignty over illegal settlements in exchange for largely worthless desert -- but that Israel was never interested in any of it and had no intention of allowing a Palestinian state of any sort to be established.
This was all enormously embarrassing to the Palestinian Authority leadership, which denounced the reporting on the leak, because many of the concessions they offered were and remain anathema to most Palestinians. That Israel was uninterested in a two-state solution was hardly news to the Palestinians, but reading this reporting can be very illuminating for Americans who have largely swallowed Israeli spin on the peace process.
15
@The Owl
Israel gave back Gaza and we saw what happened there. Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon and we saw what happened there.
There is no viable two state solution.
1
@Christopher
Why didn't Arafat make a counteroffer?
1
Will Netanyahu face the same condemnation for unilateral border changes as did Vladimir Putin? Or will he receive financial and military aid to do so?
7
A pathway for POTUS. Paranoid negative angry ‘me-first’ nationalism trumps united democratic positive progress.
5
I did not doubt this outcome. With such actors involved, and such backers, we have confirmation that when you can't win fairly, you cheat.
9
Belligerence wins again. Sad day for all.
7
Trump will use the Israeli election to crow he is not only the greatest president the USA has ever had but, that he is also a king-maker around the world! Help from him can make or break any politician no matter how corrupt anywhere. He wants to be a dictator in a president's clothing here in our country and will use any means possible to sway the 2020 election in his favor. Democrats must pull together and nominate a forceful candidate to challenge him. The Mueller report had him apprehensive and relatively quiet the week before it went to Barr. But the minute Barr gave him the thumbs up he reverted to his usual bullying and out-right lies to rally his blind supporters. Dark times ahead I fear.
6
After Jared's BFF Bibi gets re-elected he and Trump can plan a huge war with Iran. Maybe Trump will decide to call off elections and continue in office.
12
@Jacquie He'll declare Martial Law.
1
Bibi is a criminal and it's a shame if he is able to pull this one off. What's happening to the world today? Right wingers in country after country are taking over and 'were' just letting them? It's WW2 all over again on a much larger scale. As for Arab's boycotting, you'll rue the day soon. A smarter choice was to vote against Bibi; not voting just gave him an upper hand.
10
Once again "ultra orthodox" whether Christian conservatives in this country or orthodox Jews in Israel back the candidate under a cloud of corruption. So much for values.
9
The forces of evil and darkness continue their sweep across the planet, including Israel and here in the US.
7
The Israeli right wing has learned well from their US Republican and fundamentalist Christian backers.
8
@Publius...
If you look at the Israeli votes with some sort of objectivity, there is no Israeli left wing left.
1
Hamas and Hezbolah and in general the Palestinians leaders and the Arab world, have consistantly refused the existence of Israel, and since 1948 have continuously waged war on Israel.
Who sows the wind reaps the whirlwind.
I deaply simpatize with the Palestinian people who are the victims of the fanaticism of their leaders.
Israel evacuated Gaza. But instead of working to take advantage of their independance, Hamas has not stop harassing Israel. Otherwise, the borders would be open;
It is noteworthy that Egypt has also placed controls on their own border.
What would we do if the Mexicans, insisting on the return of New Mexico for exemple, woul act as Hamas does?
Does Germany insist on the return of Prussia, the birth place of the country?
The Palestinian people should recognize that the attack on Israel contrary to the UN resolution of 1948 and subsequent wars canot remain without consequences.
Today the people of Israel are giving up all hopes of living peacefully with the Palestinians, thus the election of Bibi...
15
@Max Lewy Interesting you mention Hamas/Hezbolah and then date your point back to 1948. These organizations did not exist until the 1980s. Your bias against the Palestinians is clear from the start. You want to equate them to terrorism from the inception of the state of Israel.
However, I'll ignore that for a second, to clarify that most Israelis (and the election makes this blatantly obvious) are opposed to the Palestinians to begin with. If peace is really what they want, then there would have been at least one viable Arab-Israeli PM candidate (preferably Jewish) that can unite both fronts. This has never happened, and I don't believe there's any incentive for this to ever happen.
3
A squeaker. Victory for a brutal right wing. With a little - just enough - help from the man leading America's brutal right wing, Donald Trump. Three cheers for intolerance!
8
@Anthony Jenkins...
The Blue and White are hardly left wing...
Likud and Blue and White are merely subdivisions of the right wing politics of Israel.
2
"Now Israel will have a strong gov't." They are already one to the strongest gov'ts in the world. With nuclear weapons and seeming invincibility in the US congress. The further lurch to the right by Israel and there absolute rejection of any division of the West Bank, in fact wanting to annex more Palestinian land into Israel, seems to point more oppression and hardship for the Palestinians.
60
@c harris
Self-defense is not oppression.
We Americans have to go through checkpoints at the airport. Does that mean that the USA is oppressing us?
Self-defense is brutal. Self-defense involves killing & wounding, fences, walls, checkpoints. Palestinians suffer, but it's not oppression because the goal is saving lives, not causing suffering.
1
Ironical that they are announcing a first picture from a black hole out in space while here on earth there are political black holes being created one after another. These black holes swallow up all nuances and ethical considerations leaving behind a debris of issues supposedly resolvable by a simple yes or no, blatant like or hate, if you are not with me then you must be my enemy type of thinking. Netanyahu's win will bolster the strong man theory that when people perceive that there is some sort of a crisis they tend to elect certain "strong" individuals who speak and act in black and white fashion without consideration of any nuance whatsoever. Netanyahu, Trump, Putin, Orban and Duterte fit the bill. But since there is "no free lunch in the universe", grave consequences, however delayed, must follow. History is replete with cyclical ups and downs of this sort but what, if anything, have we learned from it?
6
In our democracy the electoral college allowed for a minority of the population with extreme right-wing views, but in Israel those are the views of the majority. There is an explicit hatred of the Palestinians and a desire to dispossess them of their land in this majority view.
In the US we have "distanced" ourselves from Vicor Orban in Hungary for his similar views.
Our only moral response to this election is to "distance ourselves from the state of Israel, which is clearly being run by an inhumane majority. We in the US, with the right leadership in DC, forced the South to end its inhumane practices around Jim Crow, so where is our moral leadership now?
8
We spend over $11 billion yearly in aid Israel, one of the richest per capita countries on Earth.
And the Trump administration wants to INCREASE that number, while cutting Social Security and Medicare for Americans.
Who says AIPAC doesn't control American politicians?
99
@MarcosDean: Oh but you can't criticize the Israeli Government because it is anti semitic.
39
@MarcosDean The number reported in the media for the current fiscal year is $3.8 billion. Where did you get $11 billion? Among the major donors to Republican candidates, the most important issues are tax cuts and support for Israel.
8
@Howard Jarvis I'm guessing they may be including the $8Billion in loan guarantees we provide every year.
11
If the two-state solution is dead then what do we have left? One-state? What will happen to the Palestinians of the West Bank? Yes they effectively have a one-state policy already but if Israel is unwilling to give complete citizenship rights to ALL people living in its ONE-state vision then what could we possibly be headed for? The Palestinians are too weak and fractured to fight anymore and their Arab "friends" don't care. Can't imagine what the Trump-Kushner peace plan will look like now.
38
@CivilianMD
You can't imagine what the Trump-Kushner peace plan will look like? That depends on what'$ in it for them.
15
@CivilianMD History teaches us many times over what happens now....
Adapt or Disappear.
4
@CivilianMD
What Peace Plan? There won't be one. The "New" Israel has managed to forget its heart and soul. It has sunken to a mob of religious fanatics.
3
it looks like the world moved another significant step closer to a major military conflict over the right of Israel to ignore international law (I.e. settlements in occupied areas, annexing the Golan Heights and the Westbank, Homan rights violations) as long as the US is there to back them (43 vetos on behalf of Israel in the UN Security Council). that said, Israel has to be concerned about the possibility of a changing sentiment in the US as expressed by more and more Politician and voters including those supporting J Street and Jewish Voice for Peace to stop the blank check support.
9
Getting past the obvious caste nature of the Israeli election process, the resulting finalists are both right wing nationalists in which the people's choice between war and peace were made. I fear the Israelis chose a bad future we will also suffer for. If Netanyahu wins and steals the West Bank, there will likely be unrestrained circumstances. It was a bad election of hate and anger just as the ones we suffered from in which Netanyahu's compliment, Trump, won, leading us down a calamitous path.
10
It appears as though we're entering an age where scandals are becoming increasingly meaningless.
11
@DataCrusader Scandals?
Perhaps you mean breaking the law is increasingly meaningless.
3
@Ronn You're right, I left a lot of room for interpretation there. Exactly, criminal behavior doesn't seem to matter anymore.
1
I wonder if there were no settlements (and there was a time there weren't) if the anti-Israel (bordering on anti-Semitic in many cases) comments here would be any different. I'm afraid that they wouldn't be. So many on here are revisionists with regard to history and have fallen for the narrative of Palestinians as only victims who bear no responsibility for their situation. Israel has been under attack since the day it was created. Israel has lived under fear of terrorist attacks throughout its life many of which have occurred with deadly consequences for innocent Israelis. Palestinians elected Hamas which is a terrorist organization whose number one goal is to eradicate Israel. Palestinians elected Hamas to represent them but not one critic of Israel on here seems to care about that. If you don't have a negotiating partner who wants peace (and Hamas does not) how are you supposed strike a deal to do so? This is a complex situation but just blaming one side shows a complete lack of understanding.
11
It’s time we start rethinking our blind support of Israel. The world and the US turned a blind eye to Jews forcing Palestinians out of their homes and lands to create their own homeland. The creation of the state of Israel has caused nothing but war and death in the Middle East ever since. And now we help subsidize their oppression of an entire people and continued seizure of more land that is not theirs. Just because Jews were once oppressed does not give them the right to oppress others. One day, thank god, Trump will be gone and the US will hopefully again become an honest broker of peace and Democracy in the world.
23
@Mary
Not a fan of Netanyahu, indeed hate him and his policies, but your comment is a bit naive and certainly does not seem based in an emotional opinion in which you claim a comfortable righteousness. ‘Jews’, as you somewhat belligerently suggest, did not force Palestinians from their homeland. The land was mandated and given to Israel by the British, not exactly a land controlled by Jews at that time or now. And I would suggest looking into the history of the ‘Palestinian’ people, what the term means, where they lived; at the same time, see how their neighboring ‘allies’ have assimilated or supported them before or after the establishment of the State of Israel. It would be a specious argument to truly suggest that there would be no strife in the ME if Israel did not exist. Is all of the oppression and warfare there now dependent on the existence of Israel? Shall we blame the situations in Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia on the existence of this country? And, while I also do not believe in the annexations, Israel won that land in a war that was precipaitated against them.
I’m so curious as to why you think the US is so heavily invested in Israel? Could it possibly be for your security, in that having a base in the region actually protects AMERICAN interests and your right to sit around and write ill informed comments about the state of democracy from your safe and comfortable home? it’s laughable to suggest that the US was somehow a honest broker of democracy before Trump
5
@Mary I suggest you do some reading up on history. Israel did not force out the Palestinians. They left either of there own accord or because the neighboring Arab countries told them to leave with the promise that they would quickly destroy Israel and then they could return. And I wouldn't say that the creation of Israel has caused nothing but war and death. Look at the vibrancy of the Israeli economy and the contributions of the Israeli technology and healthcare community to many products that are used world wide today. To say that just shows how ignorant you really are. There is plenty of conflict in the Middle East that has nothing to do with the state of Israel.
5
Trump's endorsement of Netanyahu tells me all I need to know.
13
Hard core religious extremists teaming up with crooked politicians who promise to rain pain and misery down on their perceived enemies. Disgusting here, disgusting in Israel. When someone finally creates "one nation under agnosticism", sign me up.
16
Oops they did it again! Cementing Israel’s reputation in the world as backwards bully does not bode well for the future of the region and the world.
18
Very disappointing. So who rigged Israel's election b/c I can't believe the people re-elected the pretty horrid Netanyahu.
11
I'm surprised you can't believe it. At least half of humanity is pretty ignorant and horrible, and wants nothing more than to suppress a group they see as different.
6
This is breathtakingly bad news for peace in the Middle East. There are three problems that will destroy Israel. First is war with Iran. Second is the law that only Jews matter. Third is demographics. Israel is on the path to a brutal theocracy. It’s taking and annexation of the West Bank is reminiscent of Germany needing “Living space” in 1930. Right now Israel is the superpower, but one day there is always a bigger bully. Israel can act so belligerently only because of United States support. This will end as Israel becomes more crazed.
17
It's truly sad that Arab Israelis sat out this election "in protest". Much like the Bernie Bros and Ralph Nader supporters before him, sitting out or protest voting is essentially handing over the election to the opponent. It's literally cutting off your own nose to spite the face.
They now placed their future in the hands of people who only violent action as the end of days in the future. In a few decade's time the population will shift towards non-Jews in Israel. There are more Jews living in New York than in Jerusalem, 40% of Jerusalem's population are non-Jewish. Now you see talk from the Likud about a "pure Jewish" state.
We are truly blind if we can't see what's coming next.
12
Great win by a great leader. No doubt he was helped by President Trump's support. Congrats Bibi!
14
I am sure that a certain person in our Government looks upon Netanyahu's fifth victory with envy and is asking why he can only run twice.
7
@Rick Oh you mean President Obama or all the people in the media who made comments about how they wish he could run another term?
1
Ashe, no, not President Obama, who never wanted an illegal third term. Rick is of course referring to Trump, who sees himself as king of America, and wants to stay in power for life.
4
How nice for Israel that they can have a corrupt leader, too, one who increases the risks to his citizens and vows to protect them from his own policies.
12
@omartraore
Just following our example.
4
I find this result troubling. While israeli's certainly have the right to election whoever they please to office, we do not have to blindly support a government that engages in systematic disenfranchisement of many of it's citizens. Mr. Netanyahu is a corrupt politician, who has demonstrated his willingness to do everything he can to stay in power - perhaps because this is how he plans to stay out of prison. It may be time for the United Stated to reconsider it's blind support for Israel. This is not due to any kind of anti-semitism. It is because the government is becoming clearly a theocracy that doesn't recognize the rights of it's non-Jewish citizens.
34
@dairyfarmersdaughter Non-Jewish citizens outside of Palestinian controlled territories (ie those in West Bank) do have the right to vote, just to clarify. Agree there is a definite issue with second-hand citizenship among them - also among Jews that are not Orthodox - so I get your sentiment.
2
@dairyfarmersdaughter
Your words apply perfectly to our leader at home...so it hard to hold Netanyahu to a standard you don't support at home.
1
A People, who have been so persecuted, perpetuating the persecution.....
24
What a bummer. This means Israel will continue headed in a very confrontational direction. I cry for my homeland.
15
We live in very dark times, and the trend is not encouraging.
20
@Grove
Well, look on the bright side. Over population is probably the world's greatest problem long term. This might help with that at least in the short term.
1
He's going to get a lot of American soldiers killed.
19
@Cycledoc Surely not with his genius family providing instant expert guidance in a troubled area?
Sad day when a corrupt politician whose policies include tormenting his Palestinian neighbors and promoting endless war. This morning it is clear that Bibi won, but he didn’t win in a “landslide.” Which gives me hope for Israel.
Folks, let this be a sign of what could occur in 2020 IF We, the People do not get out and....vote!!! Every vote counts, every single one!
21
Let us resolve to end our idiotic compulsion to support this dictatorship with $3 billion dollars a year, plus whatever else we can slip in under the (congressional) table.
Anyone who thinks Israel 'protects' the US with its hawkishness and crimes of territorial land grab and occupation has no sense of how our troubles in the Middle East arose.
26
@Feldman
And you do?
1
It's official. The Israeli people are right wing ideologues and anyone who defends Israel now is one as well. Stop blaming the man (who is odious) and start focusing on a population who has now elected this man 5 times. There is nothing good anymore about Israel, this is not the 1970's.
19
@lzolatrov
Sorry, for a moment I thought you were talking about the U.S.
It is now time to rename the goal of the "Peace Process". The "Two State Solution" has become the "Too Late Solution".
7
The most consequential election for Israel will be in November, 2020, when Trump is hopefully ousted from office. Without Trump as an enabler, Israel will face a whole different ballgame. As a starter, re-engagement with Iran, disengagement with the Saudis and a whole host of other policy changes. I foresee that Israel will likely mimic Russia and attempt to either surreptitiously or even openly try to influence the election in favour of Trump.
10
@D Marcot I hope what you say is true but unfortunately Israel has mesmerized Americans and will not see the brutality that Israel represents.
We humans sure like our corrupt, anti-democratic demagogues.
46
@Sixofone That way we don't have to think or have courage.
3
@Sixofone
This is the dark side of human nature on full display.
2
@Sixofone
And history continues to repeat itself.
2
Bibi's victory, along with victories by other right-wing, corrupt politicians in other countries (including the USA) challenges the meme we've been sold, which is that humans are naturally good, ethical, and attracted to virtuous people.
Unfortunately, human history shows otherwise. Humans tend to follow the most vicious, dominating, bellicose alpha males. The more brutal the leader is, the more they like him.
Bibi and Likkud's promise to continue stomping the Palestinians more and more earned them a victory.
When Julius Caesar had political problems, he went out and committed genocide against the Gauls. The folks back home loved him for it.
Our species has evolved technologically, but morally, we're primitive and dangerous. Note that there are virtually no peace and justice candidates or political parties in Israel, or the USA!
22
we are of one mind.
I know of one Russian dictator who is smirking a bit more enthusiastically today.
21
The right wing, nationalist trend throughout the world continues. This is so disheartening.
20
A boycott of voting by the Arab parties was a mistake! They could make a difference. Why not vote?
14
@Justice Holmes
The same reason why so many Americans didn't vote in 2016. Disillusioned with the system.
2
@Justice Holmes
Because they appreciate what they have! Secretly by not voting they are voting for what they want.
5
They have universal healthcare; we don’t. Why are we sending them our tax money again?
29
@Keef In cucamonga: Could it be because AIpac spends millions lobbying the US Government?
13
@Keef In Cucamonga Don't worry about that, Keef. Bibi is openly intent on ending universal health care in Israel, replacing it with private care. Your tax money will go to other thing in that country.
1
I am profoundly disappointed that Netanyahu won the election. At least, however, there was an election. That much cannot be said for the vast majority of Israel's neighboring countries.
18
@BMD Good point.
1
Egypt had an election but we didn’t like who won, so we supported a brutal military coup. So who’s to blame?
1
I lost respect for Israel when I found out they supplied arms to the apartheid regime and other despots. This has nothing to do with anti semitism. If anything it was borne from the disappointment in learning the oppressed had turned into oppressors. Netanyahu is a horrible person and his reelection will only isolate Israel even more.
39
Looks as if the American electorate isn't the only foolish ones on Earth.
72
@Laurie Ann Lawrence
Indeed.
Those two Obama terms were insufferable.
13
@Laurie Ann Lawrence
Let's not forget that 3 million more people voted for Hillary. It's our electoral system that broken not the people of this great country.
2
@EGD
Oh Really? How so?
Your economy grew yearly. You mean to tell me you STILL don't have a job in this economy?
Isreal exists, but has lost the right to exist in the world community of civilized nations. Israel signed the United Nations Charter, but has systematically violated countless UN resolutions, international law, and human rights conventions..
UN Charter Article 25
The Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter.
UN Charter Article 6
A Member of the United Nations which has persistently violated the Principles contained in the present Charter may be expelled from the Organization by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.
34
@Greg - The United Nations will ultimately condemn Israel! Netanyahu is not the face of all Jews. But he is the face of Israel that has lost world approval. The current policy of illegally annexing lands, includes pushing Palestinian residents out of their homes and off of their land in order to make way for hundreds of "settlements" that strategically come with soldiers and checkpoints: This is what is causing anti-Semitism to rise all over the world. Most American Jews (majority Democrats) vote for leaders, who appreciate the need for community healthcare, public schools and national pensions. Meanwhile, the GOP is aligned with the aggressive Netanyahu administration that is a fear and hate-mongering, bigoted machine aimed at keeping Netanyahu in power at any cost. The Israeli policy regarding Gaza and other areas, borders on genocide. The current "Jewish State" of Israel ( pop. 8.5 million) is 25% Arab, with an additional 4% "other" non-Jews. There are also more than 600,000 migrants and people living illegally in Israel. If indeed the Golan Heights became officially annexed, that percentage of non-Jews would rise significantly and Israel would no longer by any imagination be considered a Jewish State and the UN would need to address that illegal annexation and under representation of non-Jews in a single-state government. #Netanyahu is not the face of the Jewish people -- He represents the face of #Israel that has lost its way! #BoycottIsrael
9
@Greg The violent refusal of every Arab nation to accept Resolution 181, meanwhile, does not seem to you to be a relevant problem?
What other countries, one wonders, have lost the right in your mind to "exist in the world community of civilized nations?" I can think of quite a few nations that behave in a variety of beastly ways. None of them have enemies who openly call for their utter destruction. Are there any other nations that make your list, or is it coincidentally just the Jewish one?
27
@Greg
The irony of quoting UN charter articles, without noticing that Israel pales in comparison to the brutal conditions, and torture, prevalent in multiple countries right now. The UN is largely inept, muted when it shouldn't be, and impotent to act because 2 powers in the Security Council ties their hands. Syria, Venezuela, China, Sudan make the Palestinian life in the west bank look like Disney World by comparison. For the ordinary Palestinian whose family doesn't engage in violence, the worst thing are the long lines and waiting time to get into Israel. It's not good, but compare their lives to those starving in Venezuela.
Your hypocrisy is very evident.
17
They say that in a democracy you get the government you deserve. Between Trump, Brexit and now this we are ensuring ourselves a future of chaos, inequality and war mongering. The Chinese are laughing at us as we hand the world off to them.
52
@RER
China is not doing well, they just hide it better. These things are happening because the left buried its head in the sand and ignores legitimate complaints from everyday people. The left has been taken over by mansion and gated community liberals. This leaves desperate people looking for alternatives.
If liberals have a problem with what is going on then they need to look in the mirror.
8
@RER
China has a multi-millennial tradition of Despotism and Authoritarianism. They don't hide it so much as their willing citizens go along with it.
1
Ah yes, those terrible liberals, living in mansions and in gated communities, so unlike Jared, Ivanka, and the rest of the ordinary folk Donald entertains at Mar-a-Lago!
2
I said it before, I say it again: I. Don't. Care. And neither should you (unless you are a member of the tribe).
Put it in perspective, please. A tiny morsel of a country, with a unique culture/religion/ethnicity/race fused together. There are a lot others of the same around the globe.
So why this unhealthy focus on THIS one?
30
@waldo
Because the USA sends them more economic and military aid than goes to any other "morsel of a country" tiny or large, and they have, through their supporters, a significant political presence here in the USA?
21
@waldo
Agree 200% and time we stop subsidizing them like they are one of our states. Let them fend for themselves.
17
@waldo. You have a very narrow view of the world and a a very short sight. The continued expansion of the power of men who are seen as chosen by god to do this or that imperils us all. Wake up!
8
“Our voters asked for hope and we gave it to them. They wanted a different path and we carved it out for them. We will not stand down from our civil duty to represent over a million citizens who searched for an alternative.
Historically, a sign of hope for the Jews came more in the form of the Nile turning blood red. Perhaps Mr. Gantz shouldn't overestimate his worth to Israel.
Brute strength is all some have come to respect for that's what they've always been most familiar with.
“Bibi, king of Israel.” Nothing like the good old days.
3
@John Doe
Well John Doe Mr. Anybody, I guess it's OK to shoot unarmed children with sniper fire and injure or kill for WHAT?
US gives major amount of $$ to Israel for military this is totally contrary to what PEACE should be.
And I guess you have no problem with the financial scandals surrounding your King???
He is also using the extreme right to keep his office.
That's not exactly in keeping with basic mortality, and ethical behavior.
4
Look! Israel is our forward military base in the Middle East and below Russia. That's why there will always be a right wing militant white Jewish Prime Minister who we support financially and with military equipment. That's why it's called "The State Of Israel". It's very elementary geopolitics. The system of government always guarantees an American puppet leader who we cultivate to assure bilateral love and admiration. Trump is a military puppet and that's why he loves Netanyahu, another militant leader. If Gantz wins, he will be Trump's buddy. It doesn't matter who is elected as long as they remain our base. This is not earth shattering news. American/Russian rivalry has always been the prerequisite for all our Israeli policies. It's a symbiotic relationship in which both nations benefit, and it's highly likely Netanyahu will win another term because our military must love him. Trump does and that's a pretty good indication of our foreign policy goals. The form of government there always assures us we will have a man or woman loyal to us there. The Arabs know and that's why they don't even vote. We can't say the elections are rigged but the process most assuredly is.
4
@WITNESS OF OUR TIMES
That would be very true if the US military and CIA had a vote in Israeli elections. Trouble is, they don't. Israelis chose Bibi, not Trump, not the CIA and not the American military. Bibi has been given his resounding mandate for the fourth time, and the only ones who he truly must answer to are Israeli voters.
6
@Daniel "Resounding Mandate" huh? His party doesn't even have enough seats to form a government. So his coalition will include hateful people.
4
Listening to the BBC say the president continues to be under investigation for corruption, and the question is whether a sitting president can be indicted—people voted him in even though he's under investigation. And the sane are dismayed that new nationalism, nativism, a strong-man philosophy and religion have triumphed over an open, global and free perspective. The president has cast himself as a savior, as the only one who can save and maintain the country. The election is too close to call and questionable.
Am I talking about Israel? Or the US?
Twinning.
34
@Naples. You must be talking about the US because the President of Israel is not under indictment or investigation.
1
@0326
Not yet, although it has been RECOMMENDED already.
1
Israel has decided to cement itself in the eyes of the world as a brutal, corruy, violent authoritarian state. Israel should know that the next generation of Americans will turn their back on them unless they change their ways.
57
@JT Hopefully you are right. However, the surge of nationalists and racist evangelicals this past term has shown otherwise.
11
@JT Can you explain how Israel is corrupt or authoritarian? 'Brutal, corruy, violent authoritarian state[s]' don't typically have free elections, or a press that frequently skewers the sitting PM. Nor do they have minority rights (Israeli Arabs have voting rights, and are well represented by Arab political parties), women's rights, or LGBTQ rights (In Israel, there are pride parades. In Gaza LGBTQ people are thrown from buildings).
13
@JT
Why do "progressives" think that they speak for everyone? America will turn its back on Israel when we have a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, free college, reparations for slavery, and break up Amazon, Facebook, and google. Which is to say "Never."
8
Horrible. I feel sad for the trajectory of Israel and sadder still for the future of Palestine. This is a lose-lose development.
And Trump will take this as a win, which is a bad thing for all of us. It will embolden his frightening rhetoric towards existing and prospective Jewish Republicans.
36
Corrupt leaders around the world are rallying crowds, and winning elections. Truth, honesty, and basic human decency don’t matter any more. We are heading to a world order were everything will fly.
39
@Mark M
Until everything collides.
Despite his flaws, and there are many, Netanyahu has been the most articulate leader in the West for many years now. He has fought for Western values when so many European countries and the United States have given up on them. His excellence at his job and his ability to explain himself keep him winning. While others defend terrorist regimes and societies that stone people to death for their sexual preferences, or criticize Israel while staying silent about the atrocities in Syria, he stands alone in standing up for truly liberal and progressive values such as democracy and free speech. Meanwhile, back here in the US, we see our constitution under assault every day. The proof of all this is in so many of the comments below, where so many Americans criticize a fairly held democratic election.
18
@Jack19 Since when is Israel "the West?" Israelis are middle-easterners. Are the Russians and Turks Westerners now too?
Israel is not a democracy. It is a religious ethno-state like the rest of the region.
8
@Jack19 Since when is Israel "the West?" Israelis are middle-easterners. Are the Russians and Turks Westerners now too?
1
@Kat Israel is philosophically in the West. Just because you have decided it is not a democracy does not make it so. You're commenting on an article about an election by all appearances that seems to have more credibility than the last US election. Also, calling it a religious ethno-state is inaccurate or perhaps misleading. Britain has a cross on its flag and it is populated primarily by Britons, does that make it a religious ethno-state by your definition? I think you are trying to mislead.
3
The campaign to bring Soviet Jews to Israel, initiated by the long-lived Labor government, ironically accounts for a significant part of the Right that continues to dominate the Left.
The primary reason for the urgency of the Russian immigration campaign was fears about Palestinians' becoming the majority population west of the Jordan in the near future.
Jews in Russia were the second largest Jewish population in the outside world, and the most likely source of a major surge in the Jewish portion of Israel's population. This built on a main concern from the 1950s on, to enhance the Jewish fraction of the state.
Population has indeed grown, explosively. The Russians account for this, along with the Haredim. The fears about becoming a minority are very much diminished.
So Labor got what it wanted? Not quite. It got what Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu, and the other right parties wanted or want in retrospect.
The steadily more nationalistic, repressive, and Palestinian-bashing current continues to grow, a decisive support to the badly wounded Netanyahu.
The Russian subculture is creating a very different, more aggressive Israel, Avigdor Lieberman's Israel.
Hardly the Labor dream.
13
OK Jared now you can relax. You don't need to modify anything in your "Deal of the Century". You can proceed alongside your friend Netanyahu to disenfranchise the Palestinians and stick it to international law.
20
It is pretty obvious by now that Israel today is a far different nation and government from the secular state founded in the aftermath of World War 2.
That Netanyahu was able to openly pander to the extreme right wing and still get close to a majority tells a lot about the nation’s voters. Less than a month ago he stated that if you were not Jewish you were something less than a full citizen in a nation with a not insignificant Christian and Muslim population. This shift toward the most extreme religious and political elements would disturb me greatly if I were a secular, Reform or Conservative Jew living in Israel.
31
@David Gregory Secular state founded after WW2? No, it was founded as a Jewish democracy, never secular, which is the source of much of the conflict, because I don't know how you can really have such a thing. (and not just a conflict with Arabs but within Judaism as to what really defines a Jew.) But going back to the Balfour declaration and beyond, it was always intended to be a Jewish state. The question of how to do this and protect the non-Jewish inhabitants has never been successfully addressed (and it is not one-sided - the Arab/Palestinian side has consistently resisted any attempts at compromise or establishing a true 2 state solution).
There are 120 seats in the Knesset, which makes the number 61 seem like the minimum majority.
That isn't really true. Arabs have seats, and both blocs have made explicit promises during this election never to include the Arabs in any governing coalition.
If Netanyahu has 65 seats, that does not leave 55 in the opposition. It leases 55 minus the Arabs. The Arabs currently have 17 seats. Thus, it would really be 65-38.
There are really only 103 non-Arab seats that are welcome into any government. A majority is thus 52, not 61.
Netanyahu is well over 52.
13
@Mark Thomason
Very interesting clarification.
Thanks.
5
Netanyahu's imminent victory: What a travesty for Israel, for Palestine, for the Middle East, and for the whole world.
Prime Minister: We're tired of your never-ending self-righteousness, elitist possessiveness, crass belligerence ... and corruption. Your re-election is everyone's loss.
22
Electing politicians is a trade off. Occasionally voters are faced with a choice of a candidate who is supremely qualified but lacking in personal ethics.
Unfortunately there was no candidate running that could match BeBe on competence, experience and toughness.
Many Israelis held their nose and voted for the stronger candidate!
10
Trump's interference in Israel's election was obvious just as Russia's interference in ours was. Israel has apparently re-elected a criminal with Trump's help. Will we re-elect our own criminal in 2020? Wake-up time for the Democratic Party. Time to circle the wagons and cease infighting. This is now very serious business, business that may well determine the fate of the Democracy.
27
@David Kannas
Remember Obama’s interference in Israel election- against Netanyahu?
6
Before there was never a question of Israel's right to exist. Now the question arises.
8
@Greg. Israel’s “right to exist”, like France’s, is dependent upon their ability to defend themselves from hostile forces.
How long would you tolerate Swiss rockets exploding around Lyon?
16
@Lady L
"Right" and is not a function of military might. It is a function of morality and legality.
5
@Lady L
We didn't steal their land and water resources. We didn't abduct and incarcerate their children. We didn't destroy their orchards and demolish their homes. Therefore the Swiss are not firing rockets at us.
9
Netanyahu and his supporters complain that the Palestinian leaders refuse to negotiate a permanent peace. But the Israelis have never offered any terms other than that the Palestinians accept the Israeli annexation of Palestinian land as a precondition of the negotiations. American citizens (both Jew and Gentile) would not accept for one minute living as second-class citizens in Israel or as stateless Palestinian Arab residents of Gaza or in the West Bank. As to Israeli demands that we negotiate away our rights and our land, we'd say "Nuts!" What's in it for the Palestinians?
14
@Bayou Houma. This is a lie. On 2 separate occasions Israel has given the Palestinians a deal that included absolutely everything they asked for, and they turned it down. And they have continued to be an entity that isn't even close to being a partner in legitimate peace talks. They remain intransigent to any peace overtures from Israel. Therefore Israel might as well pursue the path it's pursuing now as there is no one sitting at the negotiations table with them.
10
@0326
“Absolutely everything they asked for...”
Source of this information?
2
Netanyahu and his politics are repugnant to me. In a better world, I'd like to see a fully functional and sovereign Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza living in peace and prosperity alongside Israel. But this is not a better world. This is a world in which every Israeli attempt at peace over the last 25 years has been met with Arab suicide bombers and rockets. The Israeli electorate isn't "conservative." They're scared. And for good reason. Netanyahu, like Trump, feeds off of fear. I think it's time for liberals to accept that the dream of a two-state solution is dead. There will have to be a different outcome. Maybe Netanyahu is the outcome: a long holding pattern during which Israel prospers and the Palestinians are exhausted -- slowly accepting Israel as the economic reality of their lives if never quite politically.
14
Once again it is shown, that no matter what is said before hand , when a voter goes into a voting booth, they vote "health and wealth." every other issue is secondary. And when you are going to vote for the President of the Unites States you can triple that sentiment. Scandals, and moral imperfections even health care always get Trumped by lower taxes and voting for the best person who the voter feels can protect the nation from it's enemies..
7
Israel is the best game in town in the Middle East (democracy, high standard of living, order, women's rights, etc.) and the good news from what I could gather from the news coverage leading up to the election is that some Arabs in Israel realize that it is far better to live as an Arab in Israel than as an Arab in most of the surrounding countries, and so they want to make Israel better, but it will take time. This election result should not change that.
17
A sad day for liberal democracy and a good day for authoritarianism, corruption and personality cults.
Netanyahu's Israel has strayed so far from the original vision of its Founders, such as David Ben-Gurion and Abba Eban, social democrats who, in the context of post-World War II global liberalism, saw Israel as the chance to establish a bulwark of democracy in the Middle East.
Sadly, under Netanyahu, this idealistic vision has degenerated to the point where Israel is now just another authoritarian Mideast state among many, ruled by a corrupt strongman with a personality cult of a political party to rubber stamp his commands.
The Enlightenment-era experiment of liberal democracy is dying a slow death all around the world, as well as in this country, and we are tragically devolving back to the brutal Hobbesian world of "all against all."
61
@John M
It hurts to be in the extreme. Nethanyu is the mainstream. Otherwise, he would not win. To describe Israeli politics as authoritarian is the height of foolishness.
16
@Shamrock was thinking the same as "authoritarian" is being thrown around after someone wins an election that some disagree with. Maybe these same people should ask why Hamas hasn't called for an election since 2006
5
Why did the judicial system in Israel wait to bring Netanyahu to court? He should have been tried before the election!
11
Too bad. I was hoping he would lose.
16
Make no mistake, now Israel looks gratefully to tyrant Trump, too. Democracy is an acquired taste, some prefer the highs of demagoguery.
18
Perhaps the greatest irony in history; a people is almost totally annihilated by a strident right-wing regime that espouses ethnic hatred and steals land from others... and then forms its own country with a strident right-wing regime that espouses ethnic hatred and steals land from others.
153
@John Wilson I believe it's called "Identification with the aggressor."
13
@John Wilson Who was land stolen from? Are those annihilated people the ones lobbing the rockets?
10
@John Wilson After damage has been done, damaged people are sometimes bound to perpetuate it.
9
It's about time for people to wake up. Ever since I was little (yes, I'm a "baby boomer" and I'm now 70) we have been hearing about the Israelis and the Arabs. This foolishness has been going on since 1948 or more. It's time for these folks to give up their 4,000 year blood feud and get with it. It's 2019 and we're tired of lies. Corruption, greed, and lies exist everywhere, not just here in the United States and we should have zero tolerance for this, right?
8
Israel was already far out on a limb. Now Netanyahu and his extremist cohorts are going to take the country even further out on the limb, too far out. The limb has reached its strength limit and Isreal will be at far greater risk of coming crashing to the ground. They may have just past the point of no return.
8
@Greg
We've heard this sort of argument said many times before, first about Jews not converting to a more 'enlightened' Christianity and then to a more 'enlightened' Islam and much later about the state of Israel not willing to play by the rules established for it (and only for it because other states play by different rules) by a more 'enlightened' world. As they say, the dogs bark, but the caravan goes.
Israelis made a choice of their own so everybody please stop barking now and go focus on elections in 1.5 billion India that are starting tomorrow.
15
The threat of yet another war in the Middle East just increased.
10
And who will that war be with. Certainty not the Arab states who have seen the light and are allied to Israel. Certainly not with Russua who shares Israel's distaste of Jihadists. Certainly not Syria which is a puppet of Russis. So who is left. Terrorist number one Iran and its surragates Hezbollah and Hamas, which is nothing to do with the election of Netenyahu.
1
@Sydney Kaye
Trump (read John Bolton), Kushner, Netanyahu and the Saudi MBS (alias "the butcher") are well on their way to provoking a war with Iran. If Iran cannot resist the provocations the war will end up being between the USA, Israel, and Saudi Arabia on one side and Iran, Russia, Syria on the other side with support from the people in the streets in the Middle East and beyond. The result will, again, be needless loss of blood and treasure, plus the extension of world conflict.
2
@Greg
Yes, of course. The guy who was PM yesterday, is still PM. The guy who has been PM for 10 years, will be PM for another few years. Obviously, in Greg-of-Lyon world, things have changed dramatically. Makes perfect sense.
1
Israel's most potent "weapon", it's moral authority, will continue on its downward trajectory with the election of the deeply flawed Netanyahu and his reckless association with these extremist political elements, including his aggressive embrace of America's amoral Trump. Any electoral celebrations will be but temporary "sugar highs", followed by a long and deep, reflective period of sober reexamination of this country's decades old relationship with its ally. Netanyahu may have won re-election, but in the process have lost the future support of his country's most steadfast ally. "The times they are a-changin"!
12
. . . And he'll never face criminal charges and so on and so forth. Just another day in the age of the rise of authoritarians taking over democracies.
We are all on a collision course of progressive and digressive civilizations.
This all could have been paradise but we squandered our resistance for a pocket full of gold barely concealing the hate gene that hides in the pocket among those jingling coins.
9
The politics of fear.
I can't imagine how this frightened ship gets turned around. I never thought I'd see this in my lifetime, the world is heading into a very dark place.
How do we keep the lights on?
16
I am not an Israeli but was truly hoping that Netanyahu would lose. The democratic world needs to reverse its course and even the elections of a small country like Israel would help provide other nations and peoples with guidance.
Unfortunately, like far too many Americans, Israelis are leaning much too far to the right for my liking. And sadly, they are not the only democracy that is dealing with conservative impulses and passions.
10
Thank goodness the US has term limits.
59
@Wondering Jew
Agree, a third Obama term would have been an absolute disgrace
As Shmuel Rosner says in his piece today, when it comes to Israeli elections security is primary and even overrides allegations of political corruption. Perhaps our President is aware of this too and therefore is attempting to portray illegal immigration and the alleged need for a border wall with Mexico as this country’s own “security” issue, which should "trump" his ethical and other personal shortcomings. The problem for Trump of course is that the security issues in Israel are real (i.e. hostile neighboring regimes and terrorists) while Trump can only point to women and children trying to get into this country to escape poor living conditions in their own countries.
7
@Jay Orchard Those who would trade honest democratic government for security deserve neither honest democratic government nor security. Voters can no longer be trusted to strengthen democracy. Contrarily the more people clamor for progressive change the more governments move further to the right wing by dividing up the electorate.
1
If Israel didn't prioritise security there would be no state to govern, " honest democracy" or otherwise.
1
If I read the article correctly, it is possible that President Reuven Rivlin will choose Benny Gantz to form a government, and still possible that Blue and White will prevail after all the votes have been counted. In any case, Blue and White will occupy 35 seats in the Knesset and may well shift Israel’s policies further toward the center.
10
@BlueMountainMan
Ignoring the vote and stuffing the elite’s choice down the people’s throat—isn’t that ... authoritarian?
He owes Trump. And he should come and give a speech to Congress to talk about the Israeli / Egypt border wall that had been 99.98% effective against migrant caravans.
Just Wikipedia it. It’s 10x shorter than the US Mexico border but we have 40x the population and resources.
7
I support Israel without precondition. There is nothing that Netanyahu or Israel could do that can change the fact that Israel is a western democracy surrounded by barbarism.
27
How are you a Western-style democracy when two-fifths of those who live within your borders are dispossessed of the right to vote and a say in their future?
21
@SMS No Israeli citizen, whether Arab or Jewish, is dispossessed of the right to vote. The population of the West Bank and Gaza, however, theoretically have the right to vote for their own leaders, but those leaders have uniformly denied their people that right for at least a decade.
The Arab population of the West Bank and Gaza may be dispossessed of a state, but that has more than a little to do with their continual refusal to negotiate a state in exchange for a lasting peace and an acceptance of the State of Israel. They have been offered such a state numerous times, and each time they have walked away from negotiations without any counter-proposals and have turned to violence.
Had the Palestinians accepted any of these proposals, they would currently have a state. Had they made any reasonable proposals, they would likely have a state. Had they taken possession of the Gaza strip and not immediately turned it into a launching pad for violent attacks on Israel, the Israelis would be much more inclined to continue discussing a Palestinian state.
In other words, the Palestinians are not small children and have more than a little responsibility for the situation in which they find themselves.
12
Since Israel has yet to annex the West Bank, the Arabs that live there do not live in Israel’s borders.
The Arabs that do live within Israel’s borders have the right to vote. If they choose to boycott the election, then they have only themselves to blame for the result.
5
At the turn of every century, it seems like dictators, strong men, nationalists and pure evil ascends to power. The good forces eventually will gain enough momentum and destroy them, although the resulting violence will scar a generation or two for a long time.History seems to be repeating itself again.
8
I despair for Israel just as I despair for the USA.
Hatred seems to be in fashion these days. Corruption is overlooked. Ignorance is applauded. And fear is obviously the way to get elected.
This is all so wrong. Why don't people understand history? Why are they looking to repeat it.
85
@deb
“Hatred seems to be in fashion these days. Corruption is overlooked. Ignorance is applauded. And fear is obviously the way to get elected.”
And that’s a perfect description of the Democratic Party of the U.S. Thanks!
I'm happy he won. Hopefully he keeps the promises around the West Bank settlements and further works to expand Israeli territory.
14
That pre 21st century thinking will only result in continued war, death and fear across the region. The right wing refuse to compromise or appreciate different culture or ideology. It’s time to recognize peaceful solutions and Netanyahu will never do that. His legal battles will be the short term finish of him anyway.
4
@Russell
None of the peace solutions are in benefit to Israel and are designed to only empower Palestinian hostility towards them. They are designed for Israel to make the "hard choice" and to "take a hit" for the false hope of peace. It would not bring peace and weaken their ability to counter the Palestinian threat. Instead "new" approaches need to be considered. Those approaches are more akin to the 19th century and Andrew Jackson than that of the 20th century.
The middle east is at the dawn of the greatest opportunity for peace. Syria needs to replenish its middle class and rebuild its society. The Palestinians should be offered preferred status. Sort of like Jim Crow laws that favored whites n the US but for Palestinians in Syria. The only thing is the education of their children will have to be vanquished of the victimhood ideology that is instilled into them currently. You then begin moving the next generation away from war and into prosperity. The problem is... you have to move those Palestinians to Syria.. the reality is you have to give them no choice in the matter.. they will have to forced to go. The upfront cost is high but would lead to a lasting peace. The other solutions maintain the status quo and continue violence for generations to come.
Scare for Netanyahu or not, this is yet another major loss for Democracy and freedom in the world. This will embolden him more, because all "King Bibi" learned was that lying, attacking the free press, false scaremongering, and suppressing the minority vote are good ways to keep yourself in power and enrich yourself as much as you possibly can at everyone else's expense. Dictators and would-be dictators around the world are taking note and cheering him on. And, in light of all the insanity going on here -- like Trump undermining our alliances and goading Iran -- I believe we are lurching towards another global war.
What's most despicable is that these guys love to invoke God's will in their subterfuge of justice. But these are not the acts of God. These are the acts of malicious criminals who will stop at absolutely nothing to stay in power. God help us all.
21
The world feels upended right now, off its axis. People are caught up in fear and hate, having elected such leaders who stoke those things, creating a vicious circle. Such times always create an opening for corrupt, criminal, despots and frauds like Trump and Netanyahu, who always end up creating catastrophes which take decades from which to recover. I was naive enough to believe it could not happen in America, but it has. However, in democracies, there is no one to blame but the electorate, and I do.
172
@Virginia
It happened in America before Trump. What has changed is just how brazen it is and how open the bigotry is and how unapologetic people truly are about their ignorance.
The internet has sped this plow, the seeds are cast to the wind and boy are we going to reap what we've sown.
Bush and his handlers Cheney, Bolton and Wolfawitz lead us into the biggest global disruption imaginable with the Iraq war which we haven't even seen the beginning of the blow back from. Tens of thousands of civilians were murdered in that war. Generations to come will remember that. Not in America of course.
Clinton gave Rwanda a pass on genocide. It's sowed the seeds for what will become the new front in the global war of greed. Africa is going to explode in the next decade and will cause severe global disruption the likes the Syrian refugee crisis and the Afgan war are only minor precursors to.
Reagan gave us a plethora of banana republics across Central and South America and the current 'boarder crisis' is nothing more than the blow-back of those failed policies coming home to roost.
The only thing buffering our world right now is that consumerism is still able to placate most of the industrialized world but climate change and the mass migrations, wars and food crisis we'll start to see in the next 5-25 years will upend just about everything we think of as normal today.
I'm an optimist, we can fix some of this, but we can't seem to get out of our own way to do so.
18
@Virginia
I still believe once Leon Podesta's copy of the analytics was taken the Russian's KGB was able to drop the vote in sections of the Rustbelt where a false win of the Electoral College could be done and go undetected
I gathered this by reading about what was done with the stolen/hacked analytics. Analytics are similar to a coach's plan-book /play book for a super bowl game.
Once revealed the rival team has an advantages.
Hence a false victory
He got the WH with less than a margin of 80,000 votes
So perhaps the electorate isn't completely responsible for this fiasco.
3
@Citizen
God help us, but you have hit the nails on the head.
2
So a leader who has been indicted can still win re-election. Americans take note.
39
So Trump, with his curiously timed pronouncement on the Golan and continual touting of Bibi, has interfered in the election of a foreign leader - apparently with success. He learned a lot from the Russians.
38
They’re both From New York. I don’t know which one seems more foreign.
It seems the elections in Israel point to a nation pulling away from sane, rational, responsible actions, one echoing our own in 2016—and foreshadowing our own in 2020?—where foreign right-wing interference helps to divide and conquer by turning large swaths into paranoid nationalist isolationist bigots who vote out of fear rather than hope, anger rather than love, selfishness rather than generous prosperity, pitting people against one another rather than helping them recognize one another's common humanity and equal rights.
As an American who wound up with Bush after 9/11 and now Trump for 14 of the last 22 years and counting, many would say I should talk, but like Bush and Trump here (and the Brexit crowd in the UK, all backed by the same people and the same movement), Netanyahu is eroding the good will of the world's people for his country and we will all be the worse for it.
Except of course the evangelists who, like jihadis and kamikazes, are zealots hoping things get worse to precipitate the end times. They play into this approach that makes the people of the country look like people who don't deserve our respect.
We can't be taken in, and we can't be taken down. We have to assert what's good about our respective countries and our peoples. Take a peaceful stand now against authoritarianism before it's too late.
The world needs an America that lives up to its ideals. We can't let this happen here. And it feels like it's right around the corner.
18
I doubt the framers of the US Constitution designed this democracy to be just your version of "Sane, Responsible [and what ever else you said]". They knew that at the time they were writting letting everyone speak and think out loud and in public was the best hope for the good life of all.
I think your comment disrespects the thing you are in favor of. Let those you disagree with speak, think, and vote out loud. I think it is still true their words will be heard for what they are.
A whopping number of 37 different parties were on the ballot in Israel. Only parties that won at least 3.23% of the general vote receive seats in the Knesset.In most other advanced countries with a parliamentary system, the minimum is 5%.
As by today's count, Likud forming a majority government in tandem with all arch-right parties, the Orthodox, and other right wing parties wanting a 'greater Israel", will have 61 seats in the Knesset, while Gantz and the other opposition parties will have 59 seats.
And the utterly corrupt and indicted Bibi calls a two seat majority a great victory.
9
@Sarah The Times of Israel predicts Bibi to hold 65 seats ... much more than his current coalition of 61.
5
@Sarah
Yes, losing does hurt. Again.
4
@Robert James
The Israel Times polls favour is quite right wing and favours right and arch right parties, akin to the Rasmussen polls on our shores.
As of now, Bibi has only a 1seat majority of a total of 120 Knesset seats.
And that puts his coalition on extremely shaky ground.
It won't be long now before Trump will call in the favors that Netanyahu owes him. During his reelection bid, Netanyahu had emphasized his close proximity to Trump in large and small ways. There were posters showing the two exuding bonhomie, posing like twins side-by-side. Broad hints were bruited about how committed Trump was in helping Netanyahu to the point that Trump had even engineered policy moves specially designed to help Netanyahu's reelection. Forgotten was the matter of interfering in another country's elections or collusion with one of its candidates. Too, it was said that there were yet other "small" favors that Trump would, or had already, granted in order to bolster Netanyahu's chances of being on a glide path to victory. So much chicanery was paraded with no hint of shame. If Trump is the declared master of corrupt practices designed solely to help him, rather than his country as a whole, then Netanyahu will forever be linked to Trump as his political alter ego. Where in this storm of indecent politics is there any room for decency and ethics? The coin of trust, it seems, is being debased over and over as if without limit.
7
I think there is a lesson for the Democrats here. People want security and the integrity of the nation. Many of the Democratic candidates have criticized the wall and incarceration of migrants caught without documentation. But none of them have addressed the core issue. 400,000 or more central Americans, most of them with less than high school education are streaming in at the rate of around 50,000 per month. What exactly will they do to bring order to the border. They are lucky that Ryan was too distracted to bring a bill and Trump is unable to articulate or propose any law beyond tweets. But the Democratic candidates and the house does need a policy of controlled immigration. Otherwise, Trump will win again next year, like Netanyahu.
27
Proportional to our population, that number is not particularly large.
We do need an orderly system for migration, but most of these people are refugees- not migrants.
8
What you call them doesn't matter as long as they are being used to create fear and as long as the U.S. has no meaningful immigration policies.
4
@David Gregory
That's not true at all; most CLAIM to be refugees and want asylum but are found to be not eligible.
1
Amazing in the Caribbean sometimes a great song two weeks before election can influence an election.
In Israel just maximize the talk of fear two weeks before the election and the right wing wins. Very similar.
46
The current policy of illegally annexing lands, includes pushing Palestinian residents out of their homes and off of their land in order to make way for hundreds of "settlements" that strategically come with soldiers and checkpoints: This is what is causing anti-Semitism to rise all over the world. Most American Jews (majority Democrats) vote for leaders, who appreciate the need for community healthcare, public schools and national pensions. Meanwhile, the GOP is aligned with the aggressive Netanyahu administration that is a fear and hate-mongering, bigoted machine aimed at keeping Netanyahu in power at any cost. The Israeli policy regarding Gaza and other areas, borders on genocide. The current "Jewish State" of Israel ( pop. 8.5 million) is 25% Arab, with an additional 4% "other" non-Jews. There are also more than 600,000 migrants and people living illegally in Israel. If indeed the West Bank became officially annexed, that percentage of non-Jews would rise significantly and Israel would no longer by any imagination be considered a Jewish State and the UN would need to address that illegal annexation and under representation of non-Jews in a single-state government. #Netanyahu is not the face of the Jewish people -- He represents the face of #Israel that has lost its way! #BoycottIsrael
72
@mjpezzi
Netanyahu supports basically a Hewish democracy where non Jewish residents lose all their rights. Trump loves him.
Have you ever seen an article that clearly shows how much money has been spent with loans , aid, military support by the US with respect to Israel. Possible that it is $100 billion or higher.
The game will continue as the Muslim countries bicker constantly without offering any real help to the Palestinians.
The conflict is serving geo political interests .
Look how many were just killed in Syria and how many left homeless .
8
I agree that Israel has lost its way, but blaming its current political climate and policies for the global rise of anti-Semitism is wrong. Please stop. You're justifying it. Just stop.
4
@Lucius Starfish
Read his speeches they are very close to being fascist .
1
I am deeply disappointed by this result and believe that Israel missed a great opportunity to move forward.
I will continue to support Israel as a sovereign state that is part of the world community. I will also continue to disagree with many of Netanyahu's policies.
I feel obliged to remind everyone that we don't question America's right to exist just because we disagree with the person in the White House, and we don't question Britain's right to exist because we disagree with Brexit.
201
@Neil
The idea that there are lots of people who question Israel's right to exist is overblown. Israel's hawkish supporters are saying that the rest of the world is questioning Israel's right to exist. What I've seen, is that most of this talk comes from Israeli and pro-Israel sources who want to make the Palestinian situation a binary choice - either you side with Israel or you side with people and nations that want to destroy Israel.
Of course Israel has a right to exist. But what Israeli voters said yesterday was that the nation of Palestine doesn't have a right to exist.
118
@Neil
You said:
"I feel obliged to remind everyone that we don't question America's right to exist just because we disagree with the person in the White House, and we don't question Britain's right to exist because we disagree with Brexit."
Kind of a straw man argument. The vast majority of Israel's critics don't question its right to exist; we criticize its right to imprison other people in a defacto apartheid state.
79
@Neil-- Netanyahu is not the face of all Jews. But he is the face of Israel that has lost world approval. The current policy of illegally annexing lands, includes pushing Palestinian residents out of their homes and off of their land in order to make way for hundreds of "settlements" that strategically come with soldiers and checkpoints: This is what is causing anti-Semitism to rise all over the world. Most American Jews (majority Democrats) vote for leaders, who appreciate the need for community healthcare, public schools and national pensions. Meanwhile, the GOP is aligned with the aggressive Netanyahu administration that is a fear and hate-mongering, bigoted machine aimed at keeping Netanyahu in power at any cost. The Israeli policy regarding Gaza and other areas, borders on genocide. The current "Jewish State" of Israel ( pop. 8.5 million) is 25% Arab, with an additional 4% "other" non-Jews. There are also more than 600,000 migrants and people living illegally in Israel. If indeed the Golan Heights became officially annexed, that percentage of non-Jews would rise significantly and Israel would no longer by any imagination be considered a Jewish State and the UN would need to address that illegal annexation and under representation of non-Jews in a single-state government. #Netanyahu is not the face of the Jewish people -- He represents the face of #Israel that has lost its way! #BoycottIsrael
23
Perhaps this is the point in time when we begin to part company with this regime? It’s apparent that this next chapter of the “Netanyahu Survival Show” will be getting ugly fast.
Also just a reminder to the State Department, there are 100 countries that outrank Israel in terms of population size. Maybe we should devote a little time and attention to them as well?
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@Dudesworth Can you rank them based on strategic importance and shared (democratic) values?
14
@New York...I think what we are witnessing is an erosion of democratic values in Israel. That’s kind of the problem isn’t it? But beyond that, the Middle East is a strategic muddle. I guess we should thank Israel and Saudi Arabia for testing out our weapons for us?
24
@New York Israel's strategic importance is far overplayed. The "foothold in the middle east theory" was predicated on cold-war domino theory rationale that does not stand up to modern realities. The way things stand today, Israel is a bad investment. Our continued complicity with Israel's human rights abuses damages our reputation with many countries we're trying to have closer relationships with and the fact that Israel is the #1 beneficiary of US international aid is grossly disproportionate to the need and America's interests.
As for shared values, what values do we share? Building walls? Voter suppression? segregationist policies? Military supremacy? These may be characteristics that the US and Israel have historically shared, but don't kid yourself for a minute into thinking that they are democratic.
33
I never understood why a country that won land in a war of aggression would be expected to give the land captured back to the aggressors. Good for Netanyahu. I hope that he stands firm. His nation has been attacked too many times. People seem to forget that...
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@F DiLorenzo
I agree with you that when a country wins lands in a war of aggression, it doesn't return to the aggressors.
20
@F DiLorenzo The country is "expected to give the land captured back to the aggressors" because the people advocating that position seek the destruction of the country.
7
@F DiLorenzo
In fact, Israel DID give land back to it an aggressor who attacked them. They gave the Sinai back to the Egyptians and it worked out beautifully. The Egyptians never attacked them again. Land for peace works.
6
One can imagine the smile on Putin’s face, and on Trump’s as well.
Authoritarians everywhere, rejoice!
This will not end well for anyone.
151
@JB
"This will not end well for anyone."
I agree if you take out the "well".
Of all the people in the World, one would think Israelis understand the cost of oppression. One cannot evoke the holocaust and vote to oppress others at the same time.
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@ad
Not sure what you mean by 'oppression'. The status quo between Israel and Palestinians has history, it did not come out of air. Everybody knows that 40 years ago one could easily travel from Gaza to Tel Aviv for sights seeing and that 30 years ago one could easily travel from Tel Aviv to Nablus for shopping or humus-tasting. Then things began to change and now we have that nobody can travel between Gaza, Tel Aviv and Nablus any longer. I am sure you are aware that there is a lot of discussion about who is more to blame for the existing situation so assuming that Israelis are 'oppressors' and Palestinians are 'victims' shows some bias.
16
@ad
Both ancient and modern Israel were the creations of ethnic sectarian supremacist cleansing terrorism.
See Genesis, Exodus. Deuteronomy. Numbers, Kings, Samuel.
See Deir Yassin, King David Hotel, Count Folke Bernadotte, Lebanon, Operations Cast Lead and Protective Edge, Gaza, East Jerusalem, Golan Heights and West Bank..aka Nakhba
Abram of Ur, Sumer aka modern Iraq is the patriarch of the Jews, Christians and Muslims who have their scripture and prophets laying claim to the same land in the name of the same God.
Abraham served a fickle, ignorant and immature alleged omniscient and omnipotent God who gave the same land to three different people.
Arab Muslim did not perpetrate the Holocaust. The Holocaust was not perpetrated in America by Americans against other Americans. The deadliest holocaust of World War II were the 30 million Chinese killed by the Japanese Empire.
9
@Barma
The far right orthodox view of oppression today, is all the world sees and needs to know.
7
Bibi wins again, with or without Obama interfering in the election.
21
I'm sure that Netanyahu is doing the same thing that Trump will be doing in our 2020 election, rigging it!
24
It seems that the true king maker of this election is Avigdor Lieberman of Yisrael Beiteinu with his 5 seats. What a tragedy!
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Why?
Because at the end of the day, when you have neighbors all around you who would love to push you into the sea for no other reason than your faith...you need someone who will actually stand up and defend you, your family, your community, and your faith.
This isn't difficult.
Perhaps now the Palestinians will negotiate a peace that can last into the next century? Israel has been ready, willing and able the last 25 years.
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@Erica Smythe
Israel sure has a funny way of showing its readiness, willingness, and ability.
22
@Erica Smythe. Your continuing to say this over and over doesn’t make it true. It’s nothing but rationalization to get your way with greed and fear.
15
@Erica Smythe
Polls routinely show that Israelis are mainly secular and don't go to temple in large numbers. Their faith seems largely predicated on land seizures and walls.
7
Love or loathe Netanyahu it appears that Israel is stuck with him as their Prime Minister for who knows how long . Perhaps his legal woes will finally catch up with him resulting in his arrest . Despite the result of the election it has to be acknowledged that Israel has the only true democracy in the Middle East, and its people have spoken. In doing so they have sadly rejected the idea of 2 States leaving the Palestinians even more demoralized and without any hope of resolving their dilemma .
13
True democracy? How many thousands under it's control have no right to vote?
2
Oy Vey !
This can't be good for the Palestinians.
23
Very, very good news!
30
Let's put things in perspective: Everything Trump Touches Dies.
Netanyahu's unholy ultra-right association with Trump has never been in Israel's best interest. They are both (Trump for sure) mired in extensive ethical and criminal problems and the stability that Netanyahu would wish from an association with a stable U.S. is absent. Trump would easily throw him, and the Jewish State, under the bus in a heartbeat if it profited him. Consider his affinity for despotic SA and Bolton's unquestionable intention to use Israel as a proxy for war with Iran.
The attention that Trump has paid to Israel concerns money - money from American Jews (notably NOT George Soros) for his political ambitions and pocketbook and arms purchases for his political facade. There is not even a hint of concern for Israel as a nation deserving support of a worthy ally, which we are no longer. There is no depth here, merely binary convenience and profit.
Woe betide an association with a devil - it is fraught with danger.
When the U.S. returns to sanity and it can be depended upon as a worthy ally, an association with Israel would be to their, and our, benefit.
54
This is the age of corruption and the corrupt one involved in several scandals won.
We have another in America named donald trump.
151
Since I do not live in Israel this makes it hard for me to get everything but if Arab citizens of Israel have a low turnout in voting then I am sorry but do not complain. Pity if Bibi gets to stick around.
20
@Steve
Israel banned one of the two predominantly Arab parties (Balad) from running and prevented a leading (Jewish) candidate of the other from running as well. While these decisions were ultimately reversed, Palestinian citizens of Israel are under no obligation to legitimize such a nakedly racist sham of a system and have every right to complain about the results.
If he wins, the only difference it would make if the more centrists candidate had won is that when the next West Bank/gaza uprising
comes, less of the world will be behind Israel because of his extreme anti Palestinian policies.
A similar thing happened in South Africa.
14
This is excellent news. Netanyahu is a patriot who has shed his blood for Israel in war, and who puts the interests of his nation first despite constant harassment from surrounding Arab nations and terrorist groups like Hamas. Israeli's are very fortunate to have this man leading their country.
28
@paul
In full agreement with above.
Ironic that a leader clearly preferred in the only Democratic country in the region is labeled 'authoritarian'.
11
@paul Better them than us!
"Security and prosperity," that'll work.
3
Haaretz, the center left Israeli daily, has a headline today that the probable win of Bibi Netanyahu is the start of Dictatorship in Israel.
Well, his campaign got help from not only Trump but also Trump's BFF Putin and his 'ally' Assad.
Trump's help was not only to move the embassy to Jerusalem, but just a week before the election proclaiming that the Golan Heights are part of Israel.
Putin on the other hand worked with his ally Assad, returning the remains of a fallen Israeli soldier of the Lebanon war from Syria, who was killed more than three decades ago. The timing was perfect, having happened just a few days before the election.
Bibi, Putin, Assad and last but not least Trump are destroying democracy as we know it.
186
@Sarah -- Netanyahu is not the face of all Jews. He is the face of Israel that has lost its way! The current policy of illegally annexing lands, includes pushing Palestinian residents out of their homes and off of their land in order to make way for hundreds of "settlements" that strategically come with soldiers and checkpoints: This is what is causing anti-Semitism to rise all over the world. Most American Jews (majority Democrats) vote for leaders, who appreciate the need for community healthcare, public schools and national pensions. Meanwhile, the GOP is aligned with the aggressive Netanyahu administration that is a fear and hate-mongering, bigoted machine aimed at keeping Netanyahu in power at any cost. The Israeli policy regarding Gaza and other areas, borders on genocide. The current "Jewish State" of Israel ( pop. 8.5 million) is 25% Arab, with an additional 4% "other" non-Jews. There are also more than 600,000 migrants and people living illegally in Israel. If indeed the Golan Heights became officially annexed, that percentage of non-Jews would rise significantly and Israel would no longer by any imagination be considered a Jewish State and the UN would need to address that illegal annexation and under representation of non-Jews in a single-state government. #Netanyahu is not the face of the Jewish people -- He represents the face of #Israel that has lost its way! #BoycottIsrael
6
@Sarah
Democracy as we know it? I wonder how much you know about democracy. It is just a word that is easy to toss around. Move to a drug-infested neighborhood in Baltimore or Chicago, live there for a few years and then come back and lecture us about democracy.
6
@Barma The US gov was increasing federal and executive power for decades before Trump. Now they're upset there are even less representation?
This is what people have been warning about for years.
6
These right-wing politicians. I just don’t get the appeal, and with an indictment threatening no less. There must be something I’m missing.
93
It speaks to the degree to which Arab citizens believe both sides will not represent them because of how far Israel’s political center has moved to the right. The zone of consensus in Israeli politics is already tilting towards a non-democratic, ethnonationalist future -- regardless of who gets elected.
11
@Aaron
I would guess the appeal is that they are able to resonate with people who have a level of development centered in a strong group identity. These folks are willing to tolerate corruption as long as their group is perceived as benefiting. For hard line Zionists that means total annexation of the West Bank and other occupied territories. Netanyahu promises to deliver this to them, the "chosen" people. He also promises total annihilation of any threats to the state. Simply put with Netanyahu there is no equivocation. The mentality is that, 'our group is always right' (even when taking morally questionable action) and every action is justified from that premise.
5
“Early analysis showed a historically low turnout among Arab citizens of Israel, many of whom boycotted the vote out of disillusionment with Israeli politics and with their own politicians.”
This is exactly how right wingers win. To an extent, this also helped Trump to his electoral college win when minority turnout was lower in 2016.
This is why we all must vote. To an extent, even if there is little enthusiasm or confidence, we all need to exercise our right to vote. this could have been a huge turning point for a different direction in Israel politics.
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