Binyamin Netanyahu to be Israel's next Prime Minister

[tekisui]

Binyamin Netanyahu, the hawkish Likud leader, is to be Israel's next Prime Minister after President Shimon Peres ask him to form a coalition government today.

Mr Netanyahu finished a close second behind Tzipi Livni, candidate for the centrist Kadima party, in the country's general election, winning 27 seats to Ms Livni's 28.

However the Likud leader yesterday won the crucial endorsement of Avigdor Lieberman, whose ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party finished third overall.

As a result, Mr Peres has decided that Mr Netanyahu - and not the Kadima leader - is best placed to form a coalition government with Ms Livni relying instead on the support of poorly-performing left-wing parties.

“The President has made a decision regarding the formation of the government and the presidency will summon deputy Benjamin Netanyahu at 1415 (1215 GMT) to entrust him with this task,” Mr Peres’s office said.

Despite support from the far-right, Mr Netanyahu is known to want to form a coalition with Kadima.

more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5772433.ece

[MadHound]

1. Well, this isn't going to contribute to the process of ME peace

Shall we start a pool on when he'll attack the West Bank, Gaza or Lebanon.

[Marrah_G]

14. Moments after he is sworn in?

[Skidmore]

2. Great. What the world needs--another freaking fundamentalist

warmongering ideologue in power.

[jakefrep]

3. Yuck.

I think that pretty well sums it up.

[Canuckistanian]

4. Oh, great. A neocon hero teamed up with a racist Arab-hater

Or is that the same thing?

[Vinca]

5. Frightening, esp. after the news Iran is capable of making a nuke. nt

[madrchsod]

6. barack and hillary are going to have their hands full with his guy

maybe this time the us policy will actually move in another direction.

[snappyturtle]

7. OK...the candidate who came in second, won? And we support this? nt

[rockymountaindem]

11. It's called coalition government

The right wing parties in total won more seats then the centrist and left wing parties did.

[Smith_3]

12. Beat me to it.

Its actually more democratic than our system.

[rockymountaindem]

15. It's also a chaotic train wreck

Pure PR with no threshold... sheesh.

[Smith_3]

16. I don't know. I think the European countries with coalition governments have done rather well.

While our system has failed us quite harshly in the last eight years.

[spanone]

8. warmonger

[bdamomma]

9. oh crap, the Palestinians are never going to get peace.

[Smith_3]

10. The left in Israel is learning the same lesson that John Kerry did in 2004

That you cannot "kinda sorta" support the radical right-wings policies in order to maybe fish away some of their voters and expect to win.

[Marrah_G]

13. Well this certainly sucks.

Looks like things are going to get much worse for the Palestinians.

[mod mom]

17. BAD! for the entire world community!

[whosinpower]

18. What this really means

Is that Netanyahu will be in power for a short time - and he will have to use that time to gain more support within Israel - I am not sure if far right policies will serve him well right now.

I am confident that the global economic crisis touches Israel just as much as it does every single other nation on the planet - and he will be forced to address this as well as the palistinian dilemma.

Kadima has already made a position to be the opposition, and this serves Livni well - she can use the global crisis to her benefit against the popularity or lack of for the Likud party - depending on what Netanyahu comes up with in terms of policy.

Netanyahu will have a short window of opportunity to gain more support for the next election, that will probably be within 18 months given the diverse electoral decisions made. I am not sure how that bodes for the palistinians, and since we have a new US president, who sent in Mitchell as a negotiator, and has been active within the middle east peace process from the beginning of his term, instead of at the end, or not at all - this will have another effect on Netanyahu's rule. The stakes are incredibly high for him - so he will have to get it right from the beginning - or else he is done for.

[defendandprotect]

19. What a surprise . . . . brutal right wing Fundie wins!

Actually, it looks as though progressive/peace loving Israelis are having

as difficult a time as we are ridding themselves of fascists!