Washington Post Editorial, "Who loses as Netanyahu wins?": The Answer Is Obama

After The New York Times threw a hissy fit over the results of Israel's democratic elections on Tuesday, The Washington Post is providing its own assessment of the Likud victory. In an editorial entitled "Who loses as Netanyahu wins?," WaPo concludes:

"Israelis remain strongly pro-American. But Mr. Netanyahu has proved that it is possible for an Israeli leader to campaign against the U.S. president and still win reelection. That doesn’t bode well for either U.S.-Israeli relations or for Mr. Obama’s ability to achieve his goals in the Middle East."

Sorry, girls and boys, but you've got the story all wrong. Netanyahu did not campaign against Obama, who wants to provide the mullahs with unrestricted access to an arsenal of atomic bombs within a decade. Rather, Netanyahu was campaigning against threats of annihilation from Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei.

Netanyahu's election doesn't "bode well" for "Obama’s ability to achieve his goals in the Middle East"? Excuse me, but what are those goals? Obama declared that he wishes to allow Iran, which stones to death women and hangs homosexuals, to become a "very successful regional power." Shouldn't there be someone brave enough to say "no" to America's president, who is only now beginning to show his true radical colors?

And as long as we're on the topic of Obama's Middle East goals, perhaps someone could explain to me his goals regarding Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Kurdistan. It's not clear to me . . . or anyone else for that matter.

Regarding Netanyahu's assertion that if reelected, there would be no Palestinian state, it should be pointed out that Mahmoud Abbas is also in no hurry to attain Palestinian statehood. Abbas declared to Jackson Diehl in 2009:

"'I will wait for Hamas to accept international commitments. I will wait for Israel to freeze settlements,' he said. 'Until then, in the West Bank we have a good reality . . . the people are living a normal life.'"

In fact, nothing has changed for Abbas since that time, and this logic, premised upon survival and the suppression of his Hamas rivals, still guides Abbas, who is in the eleventh year of his four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority.

Sure, I favor a two-state solution and wish the Palestinians peace and prosperity, but before they are given statehood, there should be ironclad guarantees that rockets and missiles will not be fired at Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa from the West Bank.

For me and many other Israelis, it's simply a matter of survival.