In the election last Tuesday Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, won re-election after many dire warnings of his imminent demise.
The night before the elections we were practically assured that the evil, racist Netanyahu regime was about to get a big spanking for daring to speak openly to the American public and above the head of Barack Obama.
So much so that upon his re-election I was immediately put to mind of the famous image above.
"Dewey Defeats Truman"
I just love the look of joy on the old boy's face.
Herzog, however, is going to have to wait because Netanyahu has no intention, yet, of giving up the crown.
What I find sad, though, is the degree of contempt spit at Israel by western progressives due to this election. Until the Obama administration's final push to rid itself of Netanyahu, it was generally assumed that he would be re-elected. It was really only after The Speech that his numbers began to tank and, according to FOX News, there is a US Senate investigation taking place concerning possible Obama administration electoral interference. I assume that the Israeli government is looking into such allegations, as well.
It should be noted, though - and is not - that this was a significant victory for Israel's Arab voters.
The Joint Arab List came in third place among Knesset factions with 13 seats, well behind Likud, of course, with its 30 seats, but also well ahead of both Naftali Bennet's Jewish Home party and Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beitunu. This victory for the Arab List should not be underestimated because if they consolidate their gains, then the Arab presence could end up more powerful within the Knesset then at any previous time in the past.
Whether such a development is welcomed or opposed is entirely up to the behavior and rhetoric of the Joint Arab List going forward.
Furthermore, the citizenry of Israel should be proud of the fact that it is, unquestionably, the least racist country in that part of the world and among the least racist countries anywhere in the world.
Does any of this get acknowledged within progressive-left venues? Of course, not. In fact, this is what some Daily Kos people had to say about Israel within the comments of a David Harris-Gershon "diary" entitled, Netanyahu's racist incitement against Arabs & rejection of two states lead to a comeback victory.
Here we learn that "Racism and Prejudice carry the day in another election for a Conservative ideologue!"
We learn that Netanyahu is a "racist Israeli war criminal" and that Israeli policies are "racist and militaristic."
We are told that:
There is no room for the Palestinians within Zionism. Zionism means: democracy is for Israeli Jews alone. Everyone else goes to the back of the bus.The "back of the bus" imagery is both intellectually entertaining and dangerous because on a politically sub-atomic level it resonates with the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, thereby turning Palestinian-Arabs into poor black people in the American South while simultaneously transforming the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors into brutal Alabama cops circa 1963.
From a propaganda perspective it is brilliant and all it takes is four small words: "back of the bus."
Also - and I hesitate - one nice young woman believes that Netanyahu has a "putrid, racist ass." Although just how she became so familiar with the Prime Minister's shapely hindquarters remains unclear.
Another friend naturally suggests that Israel is, or will be, a "racist, apartheid state."
And on and on and on. They also love to call Netanyahu both a liar and a warmonger.
Arab citizens of Israel represent 20 percent of the country and they have not always shown particular interest in participating in Israeli civic life or felt that they were welcome to do so. In fact, a sizable proportion of those Arabs honestly believe that, for reasons having to do with social justice - no less - that they have every right to try to kill Jews and that doing so is righteous in the eyes of Allah.
It is a double-whammy!
Not only does the western-left, essentially, affirm the rights of Arabs to kill Jews - due to the "Occupation of the Palestinian Territories" - but there are significant elements within the religion of Islam that consider Jewicide to be a mitzvah.
So, can you imagine how heinously "racist" the Left would tell one another that Israel is if the Arab List had come in - G-d forbid - fourth?
Whatever else this election may say about Israel, it clearly demonstrates its liberal commitment to plurality. Whatever else this election may say about Israel's enemies, it demonstrates their fundamental indifference toward the democratic and liberal nature of the Jewish State.
The Arabs now represent the third largest political bloc in the Knesset, despite the fact that it is largely an anti-Zionist bloc that has often sided with genocidal enemies of the Jewish people in that part of the world, such as Hamas and Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad.
What could possibly be more democratic and less "racist," it must be asked, than for a country to willingly allow the empowerment of a hostile minority within its own chambers of governance?
In the mean time, by all accounts, Obama is preparing to punish the Jews of the Middle East for daring to disobey. When Jewish Israelis voted for Netanyahu this was a terrible insult to President of the United States, Barack Obama, and he is not going to allow you people to soon forget it.
If Obama was intent on befriending Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood, before, he is now equally as intent on giving Israel the cold shoulder, if not significantly worse. So, we've got two years to ride this guy out and it would be helpful to anticipate the areas in which Obama might cause considerable grief.
That, however, is a project that I will leave for another day, with the exception of to say, obviously, watch the United Nations. If the UN was unfriendly when we had pro-Israel presidents in the White House, just imagine what it is going to be like with an openly hostile president crouching in the Oval Office.
Thus, already, we get this:
Top violator of women's rights around the world? It's Israel says UN
Guess who is the number one violator of women’s rights in the world today? Israel. Violating the rights of Palestinian women.
At least that is the view of the UN’s top women’s rights body, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). CSW ends its annual meeting on Friday, March 20 by condemning only one of the 193 UN member states for violating women’s rights – Israel.
Here we go, ladies and gentlemen.
Obama is going to open the flood-gates to an extent that we have not yet seen. Not that he is directly responsible for this kind of mierda coming out of the UN, but there is no question but that the international community looks to the president for cues vis-à-vis Israel.
If we have a hostile president, which we most certainly do, then we can expect a more unfriendly international reception toward Israel, and toward Jews, on every level.
People who think that Jimmy Carter was no friend to Israel ain't seen nothin' yet, as they say.
So, yes, my heartiest congratulations to both Prime Minister Netanyahu (peace be unto him) and to the Arab List which did so well in this last round.
Good luck, fellahs.
You are going to need it.
Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.
This is his 50th post for EoZ.