Netanyahu retains lead ahead of Israel election: poll

[oberliner]

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Hawkish former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains in a strong position to regain the premiership after the February 10 elections, according to an opinion poll published on Friday.

Netanyahu's Likud party, which currently has 12 MPs, would garner 28 of the 120 parliamentary seats, and could lead a 65-mandate rightwing bloc, according to the survey published by the Maariv daily.

The ruling Kadima party of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni would obtain 23 seats, as compared to the 28 mandates it currently holds.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ioDqxNjuNMTJ2-Tj2iVDttzKrzgA

[Submariner]

1. Wow...if this guy wins there will be war 24/7 over there

I remember him from the 80s/90s as a hothead. He sure won't make Obama's job any easier.

[azurnoir]

2. Why is this so not a surprise

Netanyahu promises to keep a firm foot on the throats of the Palestinians both in Gaza and the West Bank no peace deals no giving up land or settlements and quite possibly more dead Palestinians in Gaza all these things seem to very popular with the majority Israelis these days

[oberliner]

3. The corruption of Kadima and the economic issues are the main reasons for his popularity

It has little or nothing to do with his attitude towards the Palestinians.

Olmert was involved in a major scandal so the Israelis are looking to boot out the corrupt Kadima party.

Also, Israel is feeling the effects of the global economic meltdown and most Israelis believe that this party is best suited to deal with that.

[azurnoir]

4. Oh yes and is so apparent

from the headlines in Israel papers:eyes:

[oberliner]

6. The two most popular papers in Israel are Yedioth Ahronoth and Ma'ariv

They are both published in Hebrew.

[azurnoir]

11. Ahem

Isn't Yedioth Ahronoth's on line English language version something called ynet? Ma'ariv also has an English language version in fact I believe you have posted links to it, unless of course your claim is that the Hebrew version is different from the English version similar to claims that I have read concerning Al Jazeera

[oberliner]

12. I am not aware of an online English version of Ma'ariv

I may have posted a translation of something from their Hebrew language site, but if there is an English version I do not know anything about it.

Regarding Ynet, allow me to cite Wikipedia:

While it is owned and operated by Yediot Ahronot, the country's leading daily newspaper, most of the content is original work published on the website only, written by a semi-independent staff.

[azurnoir]

13. You have never noticed the little tab thats says

translate this page it is available for both

[oberliner]

14. I've noticed that, but it is not really a great translation

In any case, is that how you've been keeping up on the Israeli election? By reading google-translated versions of Hebrew language websites?

[Ken Burch]

5. Why would they feel Likud is best prepared to deal with the global economic meltdown?

Likud's economic policies are those of the Bush Administration. Why would any sane person anywhere think THAT would help?

God, I hope this result doesn't happen. If it does, it'll probably be the last election Israel ever has, especially since the Yisroel Beiteinu fascists would be in power too.

If such a coalition does come to power, oberliner, will you STILL support this state's existence? It'd put you in an inherent contradiction, since you post on a progressive board and have shown left-of-center political views and yet this result would likely mean the death-loving hard right would be in power in Israel forever.

[oberliner]

7. One can oppose the political party in power without thinking the state shouldn't exist

I don't see why you think Netanyahu's victory would mean that the hard right would be in power in Israel forever any more than Bush's victory would have led to the hard right being in power in America forever.

I can pretty confidently assure you that my position on Israel regardless of who becomes the PM there will be similar to or to the left of the position taken by President Obama.

[Ken Burch]

8. I'm glad to hear your position won't change.

I guess it's hard to avoid assuming that a Likud victory would, in fact, be the end of history in Israeli politics. If for no other reason that it's hard to imagine Yisroel Beiteinu ever voluntarily giving up state power once they'd obtained it.

For the record, in the first few weeks after the 2004 election, I was really despondent about the prospects of any further hope for change in the U.S. I'm glad I was wrong.

I'm not trying to push you to become an anti-Zionist(actually, I personally don't want the state of Israel to go out of existence, although I do want it to make some radical changes). I guess I wonder why you'd still think there'd be hope for the future if Bibi did get in. At a minimum, wouldn't a Netanyahu government pretty much drive a stake through the heart of the "two-state solution"? Will there even be an Israeli peace camp under Bibi? It's hard to see how a fightback could occur. I wish I had your optimism.

There have been times in which I wished, a little, that this country had gone out of existence(at least as it was in those times).

[oberliner]

9. A few points

I'm not sure you are aware of this, but Yisrael Beiteinu was part of the Kadima-led governing coalition from 2006 until they decided to leave it in January of 2008. I would also remind you that Netanyahu was PM once before and the Israeli peace camp was very much alive and well during his tenure.

Just as I believe there is still hope for a two-state solution in spite of the unfortunate electoral success of Hamas, I believe there would still be hope for such a solution even in the unfortunate event of Netanyahu's electoral victory.

[LeftishBrit]

10. It would be very bad. But worse things have happened and countries have recovered.

Apart from Bush's replacement by Obama:

Spain was almost unique among European countries in retaining fascist government after the end of WW2. They had Franco until his death in 1975. Yet they returned without difficulty to democracy, and now have a left-of-centre government.

Portugal also was under right-wing dictatorship until the 1970s, but is now a thriving democracy with a relatively left-of-centre government.

Several Latin American countries, most notably Chile, have moved from having extreme-right governments in the 1970s and 1980s (and in some cases even later) to having left-of-centre democratic governments at present.

It is very bad for a country to have a RW government, but it does not mean 'the end'.

Bibi was PM in the 1990s, and the peace camp continued to exist.