Israeli Arabs are reported to be turning out in unusually large numbers to vote but, overall, voting is lighter than normal in the Israeli elections. This, according to Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, is a bad omen for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's desperate hopes to cling to power.
Bibi, sensing disaster in the offing, has been pulling out all the stops. He courted the redneck Right (wait a second, is "redneck" and "Right" redundant?) vote by promising there'll be no Palestinian state on his watch. And today he warned all good and loyal Israelis to be on guard because those Arab Israelis are really turning out at the polls.
Haaretz maintains that Bibi is finished, even if he somehow corrals a coalition to overcome a Zionist Union party win. The paper speculates that even if he somehow holds on he'll be gone within two years.
Update: while voting was lower than usual for most of the day, Israeli papers report something of a surge following Netanyahu's warnings that Arabs were flocking to the polls.
You can be a redneck no matter what your politics, this is especially true of country music fans who take pride in thier redneckness, but come from across the spectrum, and you can be sopshicated rightwinger, especially if your rich.
ReplyDeleteFrom the first link above (http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-election-2015/1.647304): "7:30 P.M. Herzog: Netanyahu is a 'lying, divisive, inciting prime minister'.
ReplyDeleteStruck me that we could substitute "Netanyahu" with "Harper" and Herzog's statement works just as well for us in Canada.
No wonder that Steve and Bibi are mutual admirers ... birds of a feather and all that, eh?
Haaretz really hates Netanyahu, though. Apparently Sheldon Adelson built up a huge-circulation free newspaper that has totally cut into Haaretz's circulation, almost solely for the purpose of pushing Netanyahu's political fortunes because he owns Netanyahu's wizened little soul. Haaretz hates that paper and by logical extension has come to hate Netanyahu's guts.
ReplyDeleteWhether it's Israel's premiership, the US Congress or the White House, Sheldon Adelson has become the right's puppet master.
ReplyDelete