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Frederick Krantz: BIBI’S WIN TRUMPS ISRAELI LEFT, AND OBAMA, EUROPE—NOW COMES THE HARD PART: DEALING, LARGELY ALONE, WITH IRAN

 

 

 

In an election worthy of the American 1948 Presidential campaign, in which the media overwhelming proclaimed Thomas Dewey the victor over Harry Truman well before the vote was taken, the people of Israel have overwhelmingly given Bibi Netanyahu, Likud and the center-right  a renewed electoral mandate.

 

Despite immense internal and external pressures, Likud outpolled the Zionist Camp opposition by at least 30-24 (final figures aren’t yet in), and the other conservative and religious parties amassed more than enough votes to ensure a conservative governing majority. This as newspaper headlines across Europe and North America proclaimed a Herzog victory (or, at worst,  “A Tie”, or “A Vote Too Close to Call”).

 

What this means is that the serious, widespread, and growing security concerns facing Israel—from the IS terrorists in Syria and Iraq to Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon (and now Syria), to the al-Qaeda-linked anti-al-Sissi terrorists in Sinai, and above all to the Iranian Islamist regime and its nuclear drive—trumped  social and economic concerns.

 

It also means a defeat for Barack Obama and his Administration. After Netanyahu’s powerful address to the US Congress opposing Obama’s imminent nuclear pact with Iran as a “bad deal”, the people of Israel refused to be stampeded by the full-court press of an anti-Bibi campaign. Led by Administration, and European, figures and organizations, this included direct and indirect support, from left-wing NGOs to former Obama Administration political advisors micro-managing a U.S.-style Zionist Camp campaign against Likud.

 

(As of this writing, Obama—who called Netanyahu’s campaign reference to a swelling United Arab List turnout “racist”—had yet to make a congratulatory phone-call. But Stephen Harper tweeted congratulations to Netanyahu, noting that Israel “had no greater friend than Canada”; and India’s Modi sent a mazal tov, in Hebrew, to Bibi.)

 

Now, the social and economic concerns of Israelis are real enough, and should not be ignored (nor will they be, as Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu party, which focused on them, will surely be part of the new coalition). But it was also unfair to represent Netanyahu—who as Finance Minister had successfully turned the Israeli economy around, insulating it from the general Western post-2008 Great Recession—as blind to the material well-being of ordinary Israelis.

 

Those issues will be addressed. But what Israel must now squarely face is what Netanyahu eloquently warned of in his Washington speech–the overwhelming threat of a genocidal and nuclear-armed Islamist Iran. To the shame of the West, the EU, UN and the “international community”, Israel must face that threat alone.

 

And it must do so in the face of what is becoming increasingly clear: not only a Obama Administration determination, for “legacy” reasons, to trumpet a diplomatic “victory”, but a conscious policy “tilt” in favor of terrorist Shiite Iran (of which the “bad [nuclear] deal” is only a part).

 

Yet, paradoxically, Obama’s policy has made Sunni Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates—who fear Iran-led Shiite expansion–de facto allies of Israel.

 

Israel’s “window” for dealing with the Iranian threat is narrow. Netanyahu will no doubt wait to assess the impact of Congressional reaction to a signed deal. But if Obama ignores Congress and signs, and the Senate then fails to marshal the two-thirds vote necessary for overcoming a veto and re-imposing severe sanctions), Netanyahu and Israel will face a stark choice: act or back down. 

 

Hence the larger significance of the Right’s victory: the people of Israel, despite increasing world pressures and a vicious “delegitimation” campaign, understand clearly what is at stake, and have elected a government which has not only the capacity, but the will, to act. 

 

Extraordinarily, and unfortunately, the election also ratifies what many have feared since the election of Obama in 2008: a growing confrontation between Israel and its only major ally, the U.S. Despite broadly negative media commentary, this has been provoked not by Israel or Netanyahu, but by a “progressive” President with a tin ear for what Israel represents. Obama has pursued a pro-Islamic vision of righting “colonialist” wrongs perpetrated by the West, including his own United States, against the Arab-Muslim world. 

 

As a consequence, American policy, and standing, in the Middle East is in a shambles, and the formerly bedrock U.S.-Israel relationship imperiled, facts clearly reflected in the Israeli electorate’s  resounding decision.

 

(Prof. Frederick Krantz is President and Director of the Canadian Institute

for Jewish Research, and Editor of its Daily Isranet Briefing and Israfax magazine)

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