Elections again in Israel

Elections come and elections go- Israel is here to stay.


The upcoming Israeli elections are seen as critical to all participants and observers. The Jewish state seemingly at war since its inception now faces its greatest military threat of all. That would be a nuclear Iran. This scenario is completely unacceptable to Israel especially in light of the constant threats by Iran’s president. This is not the only problem Israel is facing. Some of Iran’s supporters namely the Hamas in the South and Hizbullah in the North are waiting for the day to restart wars that have been temporarily stopped.


The isolation that Israel has tried to avoid so desperately by taking at times extreme unilateral actions has backfired badly. Israel is as isolated as ever and is receiving a drubbing in very many circles around the world.

The truth is that very many Israelis seem very frustrated at the inability of their country to be “normal “. The constant conflict that is part of Israeli life does not seem to subside whether the left or right wing governments are in power. This frustration manifests itself in lower rates of army conscripts from more modern areas like Tel-Aviv or Haifa. The burden of army service has fallen on the more traditional ideological communities. Those communities were often mentioned in the casualty reports in the last war between Israel and the Hamas.

It does look like Benjamin Netanyahu will win the election. There are clear differences between him and his prime rival foreign minister Zippi Livni but those differences may mean little to the Arab side. They want a complete withdrawal of Israel forces to pre 1967 lines. Without any compromise at all. No Israeli leader will agree to such far reaching concessions. The outgoing prime minister tried valiantly to leave office with a peace treaty of sorts and was as concession oriented as possible. The Palestinians were not interested. It’s all or nothing from their perspective.

It will be fun anyway.