That’s how it looks, anyway. The ballots of soldiers, prisoners, and hospital patients have not yet been counted.
With all the other votes in and counted, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has apparently captured 35 seats in parliament. The main opposition party, Blue and White, appears to have won the same number. But parties willing to form a new government with Netanyahu in charge have won enough additional seats to give Likud the necessary number.
Netanyahu’s victory is deserved. Despite his personal flaws, he has done an outstanding job as Prime Minister. Under his leadership, Israel has gone from strength to strength, experiencing both peace and prosperity.
The thing that strikes me about Israeli politics is its rightward (for lack of a more descriptive word) movement. Netanyahu is to the right of where he used to be, and the Blue and White party has replaced the Labor party as the main opposition.
As I understand it, Blue and White is a coalition that includes leftists, but is not as left-wing as the former primary opposition party. Its ability to give Netanyahu a good run for his money was due, in part, to its perceived “centrism.” (It also benefited from various Netanyahu scandals).
What explains the movement to the right? Probably it’s a combination of the success of non-socialist economy policies and the realization that the Palestinians are an intractable enemy, not a “peace partner.”
Finally, a note about the Israeli Arab vote. The Arab parties lost three of their 13 seats in the Knesset. Why? Because Arab voter turnout was low by Israeli standards — about 50 percent. Only frantic last minutes appeals brought the turnout rate to 50 percent.
The low turnout apparently reflects Arab discontent with their parties. Using a soccer analogy, one Arab analyst said: “The Arab public issued a yellow card to the Arab parties and was not far from giving them a red card.”
This article in the Jerusalem Post suggests that Israeli Arabs feel betrayed by their politicians. But the article doesn’t really explain what the betrayal is.
I don’t doubt that Israeli Arab politicians are far from exemplary. However, I suspect the key force at work is frustration over the “rightward” movement of Israeli politics described above. Again, I think that drift is due, in significant part, to the intransigence of the Palestinians.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.