President Obama's ambition to move quickly on Israeli-Palestinian peace suffered a significant setback yesterday with the rightward shift apparent in nearly complete Israeli election results, analysts said.The prospect of a Likud-dominated government has sent Siun at Firedoglake into an anti-Israel fit, complete with wild generalizations and insinuations of American atrocities in Iraq:
While the centrist Kadima party appeared to eke out a victory, the right-wing Likud party more than doubled its seats and an ultra-nationalist party made big gains, increasing the prospect that a government uninterested in peace talks will emerge from the post-election efforts to form a governing coalition. Even if Tzipi Livni, the head of Kadima who has vowed to negotiate peace with the Palestinians, manages to cobble together a coalition after weeks of negotiations, many experts predict she will be hamstrung by her coalition partners ....
Administration officials said yesterday they would not comment pending official returns, but many key players have long and difficult memories of dealing with the Binyamin Netanyahu, the Likud leader, when he was prime minister during the Clinton administration. It is no secret that U.S. officials would prefer to deal with Livni, who as foreign minister spearheaded unsuccessful talks with the Palestinians in the waning days of the Bush administration.
It'll be very interesting to see U.S.-Israeli relations evolve with Netanyahu in power (if it comes to that), pressing the U.S. from the right, while the hardline pro-terror factions in the U.S. hammer the Obama administration from the extreme left.While the final results are uncertain, they are all too clear – no matter which candidate wins in the end, the leadership will be one of the hawks. Livni, who not so long ago was trumpeted as the new “progressive” option, has since done everything she could to prove herself as bloodthirsty as her brethren. Netanyahu’s thuggish but oh so popular posturing set the bar the others decimated Gaza to meet. Neither direction offers hope of genuine and just peace ....
As we’ve watched with horror the Iraeli attack on Gaza and the resulting devastation of lives and homes, we may have forgotten how closely that devastation mirrors the results of our war on and occupation of Iraq. Gaza, already debilitated by the Israeli blockade, faced three intensive weeks of brutality while we have maintained our destruction of Iraqis and their society, already debilitated by our sanctions, over years. Yet the results are horribly similar.
I, a member of an extream left party in Israel, want to say to the world these words: PLEASE don't let Netaniahu neglect the peace process and return to the Middle Ages! Peace is done with enemies and not by keeping them terrorised and suffering. We, the Israeli Jews are worried about Israel as this is the only place for us and our calture, but we want to live here together with our Arab friends! Y.S
ReplyDeleteY.S.
ReplyDeleteWe all want to live together with our Arab friends. Pray tell how you plan to live together with the Arabs who only want to slit your throat ? You know, those who are not your friends; those who want to blow up the school bus your kids are on.
I doubt that the anti-Israel lobby will appreciate the irony (or agree with me) but I think that Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu, among others, benefitted from the one-sided rhetoric we see from Siun and others of his ilk. If no one is at least going to genuflect in the direction of sympathy towards the residents of Sderot/Ashkelon/
ReplyDeleteAshdod/Beersheba or in acknowledgement of the IDF cell phone calls to Gaza residents in advance of attacks before slamming Israel (and ONLY Israel) for genocide, war crimes, reintroducing the Bubonic plague (yes, really), then Israelis have no external incentive to vote for what I'll call a more idealistic party. Give yourselves a pat on the back, Israel-bashers - you played a key role in helping to bring Bibi and Vigi (Lieberman) to power.
I, a member of an extream left party in Israel, want to say to the world these words: PLEASE let Netaniahu neglect the phony peace process with the arabs and return to their terror and Middle Ages! Peace is done with enemies that want peace and not with enemies that vow to annihilate you. We, the Israeli Jews are worried about Israel as this is the only place for us and our calture, but we want to live here together with Arabs that except us a legitimate entity and really wish for peace!
ReplyDeleteAmish