Israel's Election

While the stimulus plan has concentrated the US media's attention, little has been said about Israel’s election last Wednesday. The exact result of the election is still open as the two almost tied majorities have to negotiate their way to the prime ministry. But one thing emerged as clear: the Right struck a huge victory. This state of affairs tends to corroborate two theses discussed in a previous article. First, once the alarm of war has passed public attention shifts from the Israel-Palestine conflict rather quickly: unfortunately, public attention responds to bloodshed. Second, the extremists, currently prominent on both sides of the conflict, are not temporary distortions but have massive support. The latter thesis is perhaps the saddest one. For one thing, the Right’s decisive victory will no doubt make George Mitchell’s work in the region more difficult. But more importantly, this tends to corroborate (though fortunately does not confirm) that the conflict may well have no solution.