Israel Votes
Feb 10th, 2009 by The Outsider
Who will win as the voters gear up for the Knesset elections? Lieberman, Livni, Netanyahu and Barak are in competition for the leadership role of running Israel and determining Israeli-Palestinian relations. With the Likud, Kadima and Labor party groups, there is much to consider for the voters. Will they vote along party lines or will they vote strategically for the candidate they feel will secure Israel’s best interests? Will the voters consider Israel-U.S. relations to be high on the list with Obama now being our president? There are over 9000 polling places in Israel with 42% of registered voters actually voting. This is about a 3% increase over the last election. One would think that voter turnout would be even higher due to the failure of Israeli, Palestinian relations and the pending of Iranian nuclear ambitions. What Obama will do about Iran and their nuclear ambitions is unclear. Can Israel depend on U.S. support for the next 4 years, or is Israel on it’s own? Big question! Whether we like it or not, we are joined at the hip with Israel and share many of the same concerns about Mideast policies. The financial mess we are presently in makes matters worse. One positive outlook is the stabilization of Iraq and the beginning of a democracy that appears to be taking hold in what used to be a nightmare for all peace loving people in the Mideast.
I would guess that most Americans give little thought about Israel and their future but the Israeli voters decisions will determine what U.S. and Israeli Mideast policy will be to some extent and how that will affect Israeli-Palestinian relations in the near future. Iran’s nuclear threat should be the number one concern among the Israeli citizens. Iran’s Ahmadinejab is already thinking about opening up talks with the U.S. I suspect he is thinking that Netanyahu may be his next nemesis and he wants Obama to favor him and the Muslim people over the Jews in Israel and Netanyahu. So far, I don’t have much faith in Obama and his world view of what a democracy should look like, not here or in Israel. I firmly believe that Obama and the Democrat party are wanting to switch foreign policy from favoring Israel to favoring the Muslim countries. Obama had reneged on many of his stated policies during his campaign. Will he do a flip-flop on his promises to Israel? Time will tell!