I see that all the predictable left-leaning journalists, as
well as the White House spokespeople, are trying to downplay the significance
of Benjamin Netanyahu’s unexpectedly strong showing in the Israeli elections. It
is of course a stinging defeat for the White House, who even sent Obama campaign
operatives (and probably money) to Israel to help defeat him.
What it shows once again is that US left wing journalists
and politicians are completely out of touch with the Israeli public and what
they worry about. (For that matter, they don’t seem to be particularly in touch
with what Americans worry about either). American presidents and politicians and
liberal academics love to chastise Israel for the way it handles its deadly
neighbors – but of course they do it from the comfort of US shores, far away
from the terrorist kidnappings and suicide bombers, or the incessant rocket
fire from Hamas, or the perennial threat of surprise attack from Arab neighbors
publically committed to wiping Israel off the face of the earth.
In fact, Netanyahu won largely because he promised to pay attention
to Israel’s security, and that tells us a lot about what worries the Israeli ”street”
these days. If we lived in Israel it would probably loom large in our worries
too.
Mostly I think the White House failure to predict the
election results is a failure of the administration to understand Israel, just
as they seem not to understand ISIS or President Putin. Let’s hope the next US administration
is not quite so naïve and ideology-driven.
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