Netanyahu stronger after elections

Despite the fact that the leftist-liberal media in Israel and the world were salivating over a "weakened" and "rebuked" Netanyahu, in reality he will remain Israel's prime minister and will lead a right-tilted government. As a matter of fact, the election results and his options in forming a wide, stable government could make Netanyahu even stronger than he ever was in his previous term.

He will be able to lead a government of 80 members out of 120 members of parliament and will be less vulnerable to political blackmails by any one party. No one but he will be the chief power broker.

Moreover, joining with Lapid, a perceived moderate and the darling of the elite and liberal media who advocates social conscience issues, will help change the perceived extremist rightist Netanyahu government's international image into that of a moderate centrist government and could ease tensions with the Obama administration, the Europeans, and the leftist media.

While Lapid and the ultra-religious parties seem to be preoccupied mainly with social and economic changes, Netanyahu will have a bloc of at least 80 members who support the continuation of the current government's policies on foreign and security issues.

However, Netanyahu cannot bring in Tzipi Livni and her tiny party of six to the government. For the last few years, she has been a cheerleader for Abbas and Obama and a chief basher of Netanyahu internationally. Her campaign of targeting Netanyahu's security and diplomacy agenda was rejected overwhelmingly by the voters.

Wishful thinking

Following the elections, a New York Times columnist said the "tepid vote for Netanyahu in Israel is seen as a rebuke," and another column stated that "Netanyahu emerged weakened and chastened." It is true that the bloc of Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu lost some seats in the new parliament compared to the previous one, but still Netanyahu's team came in first, twice as strong as the left-leaning Labor Party of previous prime ministers Rabin, Peres and Golda Meir.

The media and world leaders who were falsely warning for months of Israel's extreme rightward drift now are wrong again by proclaiming the results as a victory for centrists and as a sign of the voters' discontent with Netanyahu's path with respect to the Mideast peace process and the negotiations with the Palestinians. Roger Cohen at the New York Times wrote "The public were unhappy with Netanyahu's relegation of the Palestinian Israeli relationship to somewhere behind the back burner" and "They rewarded a party (Yesh Atid) that wants to change that."

Yesh Atid, however, cannot be accurately described as centrist when it comes to the so called peace process.

Like most ultra-right wingers, Lapid has stated that Jerusalem cannot be divided under any circumstances and insists that standing firm on this issue will force the Palestinians to recant their demand that east Jerusalem serve as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Moreover, during the campaign, Lapid chose the West Bank settlement of Ariel as the place to give a major campaign speech calling for unconditional negotiations with the Palestinians, and declined to endorse a settlement freeze in the West Bank's major settlement blocs. In fact, Lapid's views on security issues are close to those of Netanyahu and represent the emerging new consensus of the Israeli public.

Any other interpretation of the elections results is wishful thinking.

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