The Netanyahu Right

Well it is official; Israel President Shimon Peres has officially asked Netanyahu to form the next Israeli government.

The fun part of Parliamentary politics is that Netanyahu’s Likud Party actually finished the Israeli elections one seat less than Livni’s Kadima Party; however the spectrum of political parties by the voters was overwhelmingly to the Slanted Right. Even though Netanyahu lost to his rival Tzipi Livni by Party seat count (28-Kadima and 27-Likud), the right wing bloc of parties was bolster by third place finisher Avigdor Lieberman of the Yisrael Beiteinu Party (English – Israel our Home). Thus including the other smaller Slanted Right secular and religious parties, Livni is the loser.

Netanyahu has six weeks to form a coalition government. Publicly Netanyahu wants to include Livni’s Kadima in a broad government however Livni has said that the potential differences in vision for Israel’s future means she will not join a Netanyahu led government.

Barring remarkable political negotiations it looks like Israel’s government may be a stark right wing vs. a stark left wing opposition.

There is one possibility that could isolate Livni and Kadima. Ehud Barak’s Labor Party (finished a dismal fourth) could opt to join a Netanyahu coalition. Livni would view this as a back stabbing betrayal to the Left’s cause of the delusion of giving away land to Arabs to form a sovereign Palestinian State banking on that bringing peace to Israel.

From modern Israel’s inception in 1948 through the Islamic terrorism of Arabs who wish to call themselves Palestinians demonstrate the Left thought process to be a delusion.

So here are the Netanyahu prospects with Livni’s Kadima:

1. Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu and the Slanted Right political parties hanging tight forming a slim majority government with a chomping at the heels Left opposition.
   
   
2. Or Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu, Labor and the Slanted Right political parties join together strengthening Netanyahu’s coalition to leave Kadima in the dirt.

In both scenarios that will place Netanyahu’s coalition at logger heads with the Obama Administration which has a vision more akin to Livni’s Kadima for Israel’s future and for the future of the Arab that call themselves Palestinians.

With the Middle East already a volatile place with the American military in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting a war on terror with Islamic terrorists (a terminology that BHO is intent to rename) matched with an adversarial Iran and Syria openly displaying hatred not only for America but for Israel as well; it will be interesting to watch the new dynamic of a Netanyahu government emerge.

JRH 2/20/09