Posted on 01/23/2013 1:59:13 PM PST by IsraelBeach
Netanyahu, Lapid Win Israel Elections - Obama Disappointed, US Pleased
By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency
Jerusalem, Israel --- January 23, 2013 ... Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just won a third term. And has done so with greater strength and support than most Israel media are reporting.
Even though Netanyahu only secured 31 seats, out of the Knesset's 120, for his right wing Likud Party, he has the full support of a new political party - Yesh Atid (there is a future) led by former TV news personality Yair Lapid.
Lapid and Netanyahu only differ in age, their politics are almost identical. Lapid, who won 19 seats in the Israel Knesset, won on a platform which promised that religious Jews would now have to serve in the Israel Defense Forces and find jobs. That their dependence on the Israeli economy to study all day in Yeshivas was hurting the very infrastructure for which they were living off.
Lapid also promised that he would not join an obstructionist bloc for which the Labor and Arab political parties were trying to form to bury Netanyahu. Between Netanyahu, his number two Avigdor Liberman, Yair Lapid and the smaller right wing parties - Netanyahu might actually be stronger today than before the elections.
Most don't realize that the so called political "moderates" in Israel are not left wing moderates but actually lean to the right. There is little dispute among most Israelis that security comes first and foremost and that Israel has little choice but to confront Iran, Hamas and Islamic Jihad with as much unity as they can muster.
Those who speak of making peace with Israel's enemies sound good in their rhetoric but their efforts are as good as talking to a cow. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Iran are not interested in making any peace whatsoever with Israel and repeatedly say so. They transcend words and launch thousands of rockets and missiles into Israeli cities and towns from Gaza and Lebanon just so that there is no confusion as to their intentions.
Speaking to his supporters early this morning, Netanyahu promised to form as broad a coalition as possible. Netanyahu said the next government would be built on principles that include reforming the contentious system of granting draft exemptions to ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and the pursuit of a "genuine peace" with the Palestinians.
As for relations with the US, Israel and the US have never had a stronger bond.
Yes, there are deep personality and foreign policy differences with newly reelected US President Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu. But Obama does not represent the US except in title as President. It is the US Congress, the US Department of Defense and the US INTEL community which has had Israel's back. This will not change as Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, takes fire for the US on a daily basis.
Israelis have again placed their trust and survival in Benjamin Netanyahu. And with good reason. He is a former IDF commando with the leadership characteristics of Ben-Gurion and the articulation powers of Abba Eban. He is an experienced, tested politician and diplomat who knows what's best for Israel.
And if pushed, he could become the most feared and successful warrior in the Middle East.
Netanyahu is now the leader of what’s left of the free world.
Since you don”t have to be a citizen to be POTUS here, can Bibi run in 2016?
This is a wishful think: “It is the US Congress, the US Department of Defense and the US INTEL community which has had Israel’s back. This will not change...”
The Congress is controlled by Obama’s stooges...Harry Reid in the Senate and his bowing cryer in the House...John Boehner...and with the appointment of Hagel as Defense Secretary...goodbye American defense capability... So just HOW are we going to be able to help defend Israel while China nukes us without any risks (which it threatened just again this week)....because Obama is covertly dismantling our ENTIRE Nuclear Deterrent arsenal...
We could be burning coast to coast just as the Book of Revelations describes the fate of the “Babylon the Great”. And the radioactivity would keep any of our allies away from trying to help any of us be rescued.
Has Obama called Bibi to congratulate?
This guy is whistling past the graveyard.
Israeli ‘moderates’ are quite leftist by American standards, and Yesh Atid and Lapid are far more leftist than the author wants us to believe.
Bibi is ‘strong’ because he has suport to govern from the left.
The answer is NO!
The White House on Wednesday congratulated Israel on its election, and said President Barack Obama was likely to soon call Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Obama's spokesman Jay Carney declined to offer a commentary on the election results, pending the period of coalition building that will now take place.
"We congratulate the Israeli people on their election," Carney said. "I think it's very likely the president will be speaking with Prime Minister Netanyahu soon."
“Netanyahu is now the leader of what’s left of the free world.”
He has been for four years. I’m so grateful he got another term.
Yair Lapid wants electoral reform, getting the haredim to serve in the army, helping small businesses and lowering housing prices through more supply.
All of which I happen to agree with and so do Israel’s middle class voters who went for his Yesh Atid party.
He’ll be one of two parties holding down the coalition. The other is Bayit Yehudi, the religious Zionist party of Naftali Bennett.
AMEN to that!!! AMEN!!!
Help me out a little. To the extent that this is a move “left”, my impression is that the movement “left” pertains to internal politics, not external issues, and don’t represent a particularly large change relative to the peace “process”, or the millenia long European fixation of telling Jews where they can and cannot live. Polite poster that I am I left out whether they can live. Am I wrong that this doesn’t represent much of a change vis a vis the palestinians, or construction in the West Bank, or Iran.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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And here I thought Obama and the US were the same thing. At least Arutz Sheva, a right wing Israeli news source recognizes what many American journalists do not.
The only change that we might see is a new domestic look.
Israel's foreign policy will not change by 1 percent.
There may be more talk about peace with the Palestinians, but there will be no lasting peace until the other side(s) recognize Israel as a Jewish state and that no weapons (except for police) will be allowed in the West Bank by the PA.
Menachem Begin writes in Revolt! that the difference between a tyranny and a free country is that a tyrant believes he and his country are one and the same. So to speak ill of or defy the Leader is an act of treason against the nation. In a free country, however, the government is merely a servant of the people of the country, and different regimes of government peaceably exchange power and are interchangeable. If American journalists have lost their grasp of that distinction, America is in deep trouble.
Obama disappointed? I’ll bet Carter is too...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKBdP2D3pqI
I doubt that any “progress” in the piece process will occur or is intended by Lapid. He’s just saying that as a pro forma leftist demand, but his heart’s not in it. Yesh Atid will get a domestic cabinet post, redistribute some wealth, and breath a sigh of relief as Avigdor Lieberman continues to do the foreign thing, and Naftali Bennett will take over for defense. Occasionally, Yair will make some noise about piece with palis, and be ignored. He’ll be more earnest about getting Haredim drafted and cutting their social welfare benefits. This is my most optimistic guess. I’ve been disappointed before.
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