It was close, but if things stand as they look right now, Benjamin Netanyahu will be proven correct in his declaration of victory. The Israeli electoral system is complicated – with a lot of different parties often needing to form coalitions to get a governing majority – but early returns indicate that the most likely leader to form the new government and serve as prime minister will be Netanyahu.
Sorry, Obama White House! Despite your meddling and your attempt to take down a man who has been a strong leader for Israel and a great ally for the United States, you lose!
The U.S. media speculated that Netanyahu’s address to Congress may have hurt him, if only because of the controversy they and Obama stoked. But that doesn’t appear to have been the case, nor do Israeli voters appear to have viewed Obama’s snubs of Netanyahu as a reason to turn out their leader.
If anything, they did the opposite. I think the Israelis know who their friends are, and who their friends are not. America is Israel’s friend. Netanyahu’s rousing reception from Congress was proof of that. Barack Obama and John Kerry are not Israel’s friends, which is why they’re so determined to make a deal with Iran that would result in that terrorist state and sworn enemy of Israel getting the bomb.
It’s really not hard to understand why Obama didn’t end up having much influence over Israeli voters, is it? Even the reports that some of the Obama political team went to Israel to aid Netanyahu’s opposition apparently meant little.
Some of the polls in recent days were troubling, and even the Election Day exit polls indicated Netanyahu was in jeopardy. Of course, if exit polls counted for anything John Kerry would now be a former president, not Secretary of State. Yikes. (At least he’d be retired, though.)
Netanyahu prepared his supporters for the possibility of the defeat, and in so doing, he inspired them to get out to the polls and make sure the defeat didn’t happen. It looks like it worked. When the people who really care about Israel’s security and survival realized what the stakes were, they came out in droves and it appears to have made the difference.
I think it also helped that Netanyahu declared in the waning days of the campaign that he would not support a Palestinian state if he was re-elected. That is not a popular position with the White House, the Arab nations and the UN crowd, but it’s the right position for Israel’s security. And even if conventional wisdom would say it was a risky position to take politically, Netanyahu didn’t care because he is something we don’t see a lot of in America:
He is a real leader.
Netanyahu understands that taking the right position and standing up for the right principles doesn’t always make you popular, but it is always the right way to do your job. Ultimately, it appears the Israeli people recognized that having a real leader is exactly what they need – and they responded to his strength and resolve by getting behind him.
Imagine that. A real leader. Congratulations to our Israeli friends for having one, and for standing behind him. I wish we had one.
