Filibuster Cartoons
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After a very close election and weeks of parliamentary wrangling, it looks like Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to become Israel’s next prime minister.
Netanyahu served in the post once before, from 1996 to 1999. He went down to a solid defeat in the ‘99 election, and it’s one of history’s great political comebacks that he was able to fully revive his once discredited political career a decade later.
Of course, what’s good for Netanyahu may not be good for Israel. Netanyahu’s revived political career has been all about positioning himself on the hard-right of the Israeli political spectrum, denouncing the moderation of fellow conservative politicians like former PM Ariel Sharon. Specifically, Netanyahu has consistently refused to endorse the idea of a Palestinian state, and has more or less opposed every step of the entire “road map” of getting there. He was a firey critic of Sharon’s decision to withdrawl Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, and opposes any talk of sharing or dividing the city of Jereselum. As prime minister, it seems reasonable to assume such positions will only harden, as his fragile coalition government will be forced to rely heavily on the support of various fringe ultra-Zionist parties in the Israeli legislature for its survival.
