As you probably know by now, Benjamin Netanyahu won a resounding victory in yesterday’s Israeli national elections.
His Likud Party wound up with 29 seats, to 24 for its main competition, the Zionist Union Party, led by political rival Isaac Herzog.
Though Mr. Netanyahu still must put together a majority coalition to officially become Prime Minister again, with this many seats to start and most minor parties either consonant with Mr. Netanyahu’s positions or to his right (i.e. further from Zionist Union) the result is all but certain.
So how did this happen? How is it that just a week ago, according to the polls, Zionist Union was ahead of Likud, the final polling showed them neck and neck, but the actual vote had Likud comfortably ahead?
A number of factors came into play (Note: I’m saving the biggest factor for last).
-One is that, in the last few days, Mr. Netanyahu emphasized a hard-line stand against a two-state solution. This, of course, solidified his standing with the right. But it also helped him with moderates who, understandably, are less and less willing to make concessions to Palestinian Arabs who
a) make no concessions in return,
b) have taken steps in the last several months which harden its position against Israel and
b) most importantly, based on the “unity agreement” between hamas and fatah, now are all operating under the hamas charter, which unequivocally calls for the obliteration of Israel and death of all Jews, both in and out of Israel. How can Israel agree to a state which will operate under that charter?
-Another is his warning that Arab Israelis were being bussed to the polls on election day (which appears to be true), which may have caused some Jewish voters to make more of an effort to get to the polls (the 71.8% turnout is Israel’s highest in 16 years).
But the single most important factor in Mr. Netanyahu’s win was not anything you just read. The single most important factor was….
Barack Obama.
That’s right, Barack Obama. Benjamin Netanyahu owes this man a steak dinner for what he did to seal the re-election. And what were the things Barack Obama did to insure Netanyahu’s continuity as Israel’s head of state? Let’s count them up.
-Obama treated Netanyahu like dirt for years;
Obama was (and still is) in the process of cutting a “deal’ with the terrorist nation of Iran that would allow it to keep its nuclear capabilities…thus the means to “wipe Israel off the map” as it overtly has threatened to do;
-Obama opposed Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of congress, in which he warned of the dangers that deal would bring – not only for Israel but for the USA and the rest of the world, Obama’s stated reason was the speech would be made too close to Israel’s elections, and he did not want the USA to get involved in those elections;
-Obama condemned the speech after it was made, on the grounds that it offered no alternative solution to his incredibly bad idea for a deal…which was then, and is now, 100% false
-Obama -who, let’s remember, didn’t want US involvement in the Israeli elections – either gave his blessing to, or personally sent, Jeremy Bird, his 2012 campaign director, to Israel where Bird and his team worked diligently to unseat Mr. Netanyahu
-The Obama administration also allowed grant money – $350,000 that we know so far – to go to an organization, OneVoice International which, through its V15 arm, also actively worked to unseat Netanyahu.
How do you suppose Israelis – even Israelis who might not have been disposed toward Netanyahu – felt about this?
The answer can be found in yesterday’s election results.
Does Benjamin Netanyahu owe Barack Obama a steak dinner, or what?
Personally, if I were Obama I’d skip the DC steak houses (though I know there are excellent ones) and take Bibi to Peter Luger, on Broadway and Driggs Street in beautiful Brooklyn, NY. Though I have not eaten red meat in many years, I remember the porterhouse there as being fabulous – which meat-eating friends of mine who have been there assure me is still true.
I’m sure Mr. Netanyahu would greatly enjoy that porterhouse.
As for Mr. Obama….I wonder if Peter Luger serves crow.
