International sorrow and shock at Bibi win
This posting has these items:
1) NY TimesAn Israeli Election Turns Ugly;
2) Reuters: Netanyahu owes win to jitters over Iran – Gulf official, the press agency’s Dubai branch gives the view from the Gulf states;
3) Ma’an news: PLO: Israel election results ‘destroy chance for peace’, the PLO does see a difference between parties and thinks Likud will ‘plunge the whole region into more “extremism and violence,” ‘;
4) Reuters: Iran on Israeli election: Zionist regime’s political parties are all aggressors, Iranian spokesperson says, accurately, than on Palestine and Iran, there is no difference between Israeli parties;
5) AFP: Netanyahu victory gets muted response from West;
6) Haaretz: International media: Netanyahu wins big, leading Israel to isolation;
At the Western Wall on March 18th, Mr and Mrs Netanyahu thank the Lord for their salvation. Photo by Thomas Coex / AFP
An Israeli Election Turns Ugly
By The Editorial Board, NY Times
March 17, 2015
Israel’s election has done a lot to reveal the challenges facing the country and the intentions of the men who seek to lead it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s outright rejection of a Palestinian state and his racist rant against Israeli Arab voters on Tuesday showed that he has forfeited any claim to representing all Israelis.
Mr. Netanyahu, with two years to go in his current term, called the election in December for reasons that are still unclear. He expected to win an easy victory and then ended up fighting for his political life in a bitter battle with Isaac Herzog, the leader of the new center-left Zionist Union alliance and son of a former Israeli president. With 99.5 percent of the ballots counted, the YNet news site reported Wednesday morning that Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud Party had possibly won 30 seats in the Knesset and Mr. Herzog’s Zionist Union had got 24 seats.
While Mr. Netanyahu ended up with more seats, it is Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, who will decide which leader gets to cobble together the next coalition government, the norm in a multiparty state where no one party has ever won an outright majority in the 120-member Knesset. The process could take six weeks, and religious parties are likely to hold the key to victory, an asset for Mr. Netanyahu.
Mr. Netanyahu showed that he was desperate, and craven, enough to pull out all the stops. On Monday, he promised that if his Likud faction remained in power, he would never allow the creation of a Palestinian state, thus repudiating a position he had taken in 2009.
His behavior in the past six years — aggressively building Israeli homes on land that likely would be within the bounds of a Palestinian state and never engaging seriously in negotiations — has long convinced many people that he has no interest in a peace agreement. But his statement this week laid bare his duplicity, confirmed Palestinian suspicions and will make it even harder for him to repair his poisoned relations with President Obama, who has invested heavily in pushing a two-state solution.
Mr. Netanyahu added to the ugliness of the campaign when, during Tuesday’s voting, he said in a video on social media: “Right-wing rule is in danger. Arab voters are streaming in huge quantities to the polling stations.” This outrageous appeal to hard-line voters implied that only he could save Israel from its enemies, including the country’s Arab citizens, who represent 20 percent of the population and have long been discriminated against. There were signs that Arab Israelis were turning out in somewhat higher numbers, apparently to vote for the Joint Arab List, a coalition of four small parties.
Mr. Netanyahu’s demagogy further incites the rage that has torn the country apart. There were other inflammatory moments in recent days. Mr. Netanyahu claimed that nefarious foreign sources were trying to overthrow him and also promised to build more settlements, which most of the world considers to be illegal. Earlier this month, he made a subversive speech before Congress to castigate the Obama administration for seeking a nuclear deal with Iran, but that seems to have done little to enhance his support in Israel.
In his desperation, Mr. Netanyahu resorted to fear-mongering and anti-Arab attacks while failing to address the issues that Israelis said they were most worried about, namely the high cost of housing and everyday living in Israel. Although the economy has grown, the country has experienced widening income disparities and is now one of the most unequal societies in the advanced world.
Mr. Herzog made such domestic concerns a centerpiece of his campaign. While peace talks with the Palestinians were not a major focus of the Zionist Union campaign, or the election generally, he made clear that if elected he would try to restart negotiations.
Late Tuesday, Mr. Rivlin said he would work for a national unity government with Likud and the Zionist Union. It is difficult to see how Mr. Netanyahu could find enough common ground with any moderate faction to govern constructively.
Netanyahu owes win to jitters over Iran – Gulf official
By Reuters
March 18, 2015
DUBAI – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu owes his election win to Israeli security fears, notably about Iran’s growing regional influence, said an official of a Gulf Arab government wary of Tehran’s progress towards a nuclear deal with world powers.
“With Iran emerging again, it was highly expected that Netanyahu would win,” said the Gulf Arab official, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
“He’s a man who believes strongly in protecting his people, and this is what Israel wants now.”
The Gulf Arab states, led by dominant Gulf Sunni Muslim power Saudi Arabia, see Shi’ite Iran as their main regional rival and fear an atomic deal could lead to Tehran developing a nuclear weapon, or could ease political pressure on it, giving it more space to back Arab proxies opposed by Riyadh.
Iran and six world powers are holding talks to reach a deal aimed at assuaging their fears that Tehran is using the fuel enrichment process of its atomic power programme to secretly develop a nuclear weapon.
Tehran denies that charge and wants to lift heavy international sanctions imposed on its economy.
Netanyahu won an unexpected election victory on Wednesday after tacking hard to the right in late campaigning, including abandoning a commitment to negotiate a Palestinian state.
Gulf Arabs identified with Israel’s fear of Iran’s influence, suggested Sami alFaraj, a Kuwaiti security adviser to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which comprises Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait.
“On the one hand, there’s pessimism about Netanyahu’s declared policies not to divide Jerusalem and not to establish a Palestinian state,” he said.
“On the other, there’s a feeling in the Gulf that some of his tough stances could be loosened later, especially if there is a convergence of views in the region around Iran.”
“Without any sense of collusion with Israel, there is a feeling of affinity in the Gulf with Israel’s stance on curbing the influence of Iran in the area.”
He said the Iranian nuclear talks were “really scary” for Gulf Arab states, which are unnerved by Iran’s backing for Shi’ite forces in conflicts in Iraq and Syria and its alliances with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement and Yemen’s Houthi militia.
There was also a feeling that Netanyahu’s victory boded ill for moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
Khaled al-Maeena, a veteran Saudi journalist and political analyst, told Reuters about Netanyahu: “Here is a man who destroyed Gaza and said there would be no Palestinian state. So this does not make us feel there will be happy times ahead. He’s bent on destroying.”
Reporting by Amena Bakr and William Maclean
PLO: Israel election results ‘destroy chance for peace’
By Ma’an news
March 18, 2015
Senior PLO officials on Wednesday strongly condemned the results of Israel’s general election, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party took 30 of the Knesset’s 120 seats.
“The results of the Israeli elections are the natural outcome of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies throughout his previous tenures of generating fear, hostility and distrust, as well as shifting the whole terrain of political discourse to the racist extreme,” PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi said.
Netanyahu’s policies are liable to plunge the whole region into more “extremism and violence,” the senior official said, adding that under such a regime Israel will continue to be a “rogue state” which is contributing to its own “isolation and delegitimization.”
“We believe it is the responsibility of the international community and its institutions, including the International Criminal Court, to end Israel’s impunity, to curb Israeli violations and to prevent Netanyahu from carrying out his dangerous plans.”
The PLO’s chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the election results prove the success of a campaign platform based on “settlements, racism, apartheid and the denial of the fundamental human rights of the Palestinian people.”
“Now, more than ever, the international community must act. It must rally behind Palestinian efforts to internationalize our struggle for dignity and freedom through the International Criminal Court, other agencies ,and through all other peaceful means.”
President Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, said he was willing to work with any Israeli government that accepts the principle of a two-state solution.
“It doesn’t matter to us who the next prime minister of Israel is, what we expect from this government is to recognize the two-state solution,” spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement.
“On this basis, we will continue to co-operate with any Israeli government that is committed to international resolutions.”
His comments come despite the fact that Netanyahu ruled out the establishment of a Palestinian state if reelected immediately before the election, effectively reneging on his 2009 endorsement of a two-state solution.
The Likud party took 30 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, with the center-left Zionist Union a distant second on 24.
Netanyahu pledged to establish a new government within weeks and said he had already spoken with rightwing and religious party leaders whose support he will need to form a majority coalition.
The total number of seats won by the Joint List — an alliance formed by United Arab List, Ta’al, Balad and Hadash –increased from 13 to 14 Wednesday morning as 99 percent of the votes were counted from elections for the 20th Knesset.
AFP contributed to this report
Iran on Israeli election: Zionist regime’s political parties are all aggressors
By Reuters / JPost
March 18, 2015
There is no difference between Israeli political parties following the electoral victory of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, Iran’s foreign ministry spokeswoman was quoted as saying by semi-official Mehr News Agency on Wednesday.
“For us there is no difference between the Zionist regime’s political parties. They are all aggressors in nature,” Marizeh Afkham told reporters at a weekly news conference in Tehran.
Hamas said similarly that there is no difference between Israeli political parties, because there is a consensus among them to deny the rights of the Palestinian people and continue aggression against them.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri said the “Palestinian resistance is strong and capable of making its mark. The leaders of the occupation must think again about their stances after the failure in Gaza.”
Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator in peace talks with Israel that collapsed in April, said in a statement that Netanyahu’s win showed “the success of a campaign based on settlements, racism, apartheid and the denial of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people.”
During much of the campaign, Netanyahu had focused on security issues and the threat from Iran’s nuclear programme, a message that appeared to gain little traction with voters.
The Zionist Union’s focus on socio-economic issues, including the lack of housing and the high cost of living in Israel, appeared to be generating much more momentum.
But Netanyahu’s move to the right, playing up fears of the spread of Islamist groups, promising no concessions to the Palestinians and raising alarm about growing support for Arab-Israeli parties, looks to have spurred his base into action.
From Ynet’s IN PICTURES: How the world’s media saw Netanyahu’s victory
Corriere della Sera (Italy)
‘Israel goes right, Netanyahu wins; the comeback of Bibi the magician’
Der Spiegel (Germany)
The main headline was ‘Netanyahu’s comeback’, but that was soon replaced by an editorial entitled ‘the victory of panic’
Netanyahu victory gets muted response from West
By Eric Randolph and Michel Sailhan, AFP
March 18, 2015
Paris – Western governments gave a muted reaction Wednesday to the re-election of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid fears that his increasingly hardline stance has fatally undermined the Middle East peace process.
The EU congratulated Netanyahu on his victory, but said it was committed to relaunching the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians that he rejected in the last days of the campaign.
British Prime Minister David Cameron took a similar stand, tweeting his congratulations but letting his spokesman emphasise that “he wants to see peace, wants to see a two-state solution”.
Netanyahu’s last-ditch lurch to the right — vowing that the Palestinian state would never be recognised on his watch — may have helped him clinch victory but sets up an awkward diplomatic scenario, analysts said.
“A major part of the peace process with the Palestinians has been to maintain the pretence, the make-believe idea, that it will eventually lead to a two-state solution,” said Daniel Levy, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“They were already skating on thin ice and now Netanyahu has taken a pick-axe to it.”…
– Defying international consensus –
With Netanyahu promising to abandon any semblance of a two-state solution, pressure may now increase on the West to force through a peace process.
“Either the United States and Europe get involved with a plan and a will to see it through, or we are facing a new war in Gaza, maybe even in the coming months,” warned Jean-Pierre Filiu, a French academic and author of “Gaza: A History”.
“The US and Europe must impose peace. They must admit that the parties involved do not get on and that peace is unpopular, and so it must be imposed.”
Netanyahu’s hard line had already plunged relations with the West to an unprecedented low, which his latest comments will do little to repair.
“The relationship with America is as bad as it’s ever been. Having set out his stall so strongly, it will be hard for Netanyahu to come back and say it was just part of the campaign,” said David Hartwell, managing director of Middle East Insider, based in London.
It is not only the Palestinian issue, but also Netanyahu’s absolute refusal to support the negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme that has put Israel at odds with international partners.
“Bibi has defied the international consensus on the Palestinians and Iran,” said Levy, using Netanyahu’s popular nickname.
“The question is whether he keeps going down that path. My guess is he will pull back slightly — he has already done his worst in trying to torpedo the Iran deal in America.”
Netanyahu argues Iran cannot be trusted with any deal to limit its nuclear ambitions, and represents an existential threat to Israel.
He has powerful backers among the opposition Republican party in the US, who controversially invited him to speak to Congress earlier this month and were the first in Washington to welcome his election win.
– Still time to row back –
His critics say he has stoked the threat from Iran to bolster his domestic position and deflect attention away from other issues.
“He will continue to use his influence in the US Congress to undermine the Iran deal, but he has never been able to present a coherent alternative,” said Hartwell.
“Even a Republican president is not going to rush into war with Iran.”
There is still hope that Netanyahu will be able to row back from his hardline positions once back in power.
His comments about refusing a Palestinian state “came during the last 48 hours of his campaign,” said Nathan Thrall, of the International Crisis Group in Jerusalem.
“I put much more stock in his actual behaviour and we know that he has agreed on numerous occasions to negotiate with the Palestinians on the basis of the 1967 borders.
“He has never quite admitted that publicly but on several occasions he has done so in private.”
But regardless of his moves in the coming months, analysts agree that Netanyahu has injected a poisonous polarisation into Israeli politics that makes it difficult to maintain partnerships with the Western world.
His warning to supporters that they must come out to vote because “Arabs are voting in droves” has proved particularly controversial.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Levy. “Can you imagine a European or American politician saying ‘Vote for me because the Jews or the blacks are voting in droves’? Even the far-right can’t say that.”
International media: Netanyahu wins big, leading Israel to isolation
The New York Times editorial criticizes Netanyahu for adding to the ‘ugliness of the campaign’; British, German and French outlets also touch on prime minister’s scare tactics.
By Haaretz
March 18, 2015
The Israeli election results garnered extensive coverage in international media outlets, with many in Europe and the U.S. devoting their top headlines to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s victory.
The New York Times covered not only the news, but also used its editorial to criticize Netanyahu and his campaign, saying the election turned ugly.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s outright rejection of a Palestinian state and his racist rant against Israeli Arab voters on Tuesday showed that he has forfeited any claim to representing all Israelis,” the paper wrote, adding later, “Mr. Netanyahu showed that he was desperate, and craven, enough to pull out all the stops.”
“Mr. Netanyahu added to the ugliness of the campaign when, during Tuesday’s voting, he said in a video on social media: ‘Right-wing rule is in danger. Arab voters are streaming in huge quantities to the polling stations.’ This outrageous appeal to hard-line voters implied that only he could save Israel from its enemies, including the country’s Arab citizens, who represent 20 percent of the population and have long been discriminated against,” the editorial went on.
It said that “Netanyahu resorted to fear-mongering and anti-Arab attacks while failing to address the issues that Israelis said they were most worried about, namely the high cost of housing and everyday living in Israel.”
Meanwhile, Britain’s Guardian also made reference to Netanyahu’s fearmongering and anti-Arab statements, and also reported on Isaac Herzog’s concession to Netanyahu.
BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen tweeted, “In the end #Netanyahu scored a much bigger victory than incorrect polls suggested. Showed his political skill, and mastery of scare tactics.” He also tweeted that “Netanyahu’s relations with Obama White House and EU will be even icier if he keeps campaign promises on settlements and a Palestinian state.”
The Washington Post’s headline declared “Netanyahu wins decisive victory in Israeli election” while pointing out that it was a tough race for Netanyahu and his Likud party.
German news outlet Der Spiegel didn’t mince words, using the headline “Victory of panic” to describe the Israeli election outcome. Its coverage surmised that Israel would pay a steep price for Netanyahu’s victory, namely international isolation.
Russia’s Kommersant wrote that Israel remained loyal to Netanyahu, but questioned whether he would manage to stay in power.
French newspapers including Le Figaro, Liberation and Le Monde also covered Netanyahu’s victory with the latter devoting some coverage to Israel’s housing crisis, among other topics. Right-leaning Le Figaro, meanwhile, dubbed Netanyahu the eternal “comeback kid.”
A short time after results of the exit polls were announced on Israeli television, The Economist ran a profile of Moshe Kahlon, calling him the “kingmaker” and writing that a “former car-radio salesman may hold the key to a fourth term for [Benjamin] Netanyahu.”