A video circulated by Likud officials showed several dozen Arab leaders, some in traditional headgear, responding with vigorous applause that brought some to their feet at the words “I apologize.”
.. Lawmakers from Israel’s joint list of Arab political parties — who said they were not invited to the event — said Monday’s statement was not sufficient.
Netanyahu’s Base Appeals
While he was arousing fear of Arabs and Scandinavians, he was relying on the support of an actual foreign patron, Sheldon Adelson, the American billionaire and casino operator. Adelson owns and publishes Israel Hayom (Israel Today), the country’s highest-circulation daily—a propaganda sheet whose sole purpose is to support the Prime Minister and Likud. Adelson is Netanyahu’s piggy bank and reflects a cruder version of his ideological impulses. Adelson has dismissed the Palestinians as “an invented people,” and he doesn’t mind if Israel strays from democratic principles and norms: “I don’t think the Bible says anything about democracy.”
.. Netanyahu’s victory—the way he achieved it and what it says about the politics of the Israeli majority—is clarifying.
.. Netanyahu, of course, does not view himself as Richard Nixon. In his imagination, he is Winston Churchill, the valorous protector of his nation, the singular leader of clear, unerring vision. Nearly two hundred former Israeli military and security chiefs, none of them naïve about the multiple dangers of the Middle East, have declared that further brinkmanship threatens the long-term stability of the nation. But Netanyahu is sure that he knows better.
Israel Election Result Complicates Life for Clinton
Support for the government is strong among what people close to Mrs. Clinton estimate to be about a 10 percent sliver of wealthy and influential moderate Democratic Jews for whom Israel is a priority, and could be a reason to withhold their financial backing, if not support a Republican candidate.
.. This is the stuff of dreams for Republicans. For them, and especially the party’s neoconservatives, Mr. Netanyahu’s victory was a good omen.
The price of Bibi’s comeback
Next month it will join the International Criminal Court, where it will seek Israel’s indictment for alleged war crimes, both over the conduct of last summer’s war in Gaza and over Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. Mr Netanyahu will need American help to fend off such pressure, but Israeli diplomats fear that Mr Obama may be less willing to fight on Israel’s behalf, or will seek to extract a price.
So despite his public commitment to forming a right-wing government, and his activists’ chants of “We don’t want unity!” (with Zionist Union), Mr Netanyahu may well try to entice Mr Herzog into his government to create a diplomatic shield.
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