Arab Countires and Israel
(February 11, 2009) Yesterday, Israelis citizens voted for a new government. (Consensus forming on Likud-led unity gov’t with Kadima) The result was a close election between the conservative parties and their leader Binyamin Netanyahu and the centrist party Kadima and its leader Tzipi Livni. The Knesset elections resulted in a 65-55 edge for conservative members. This probably means that Netanyahu will emerge as the next prime minister of Israel. However, as the article points out, the end result might be a unity type of government with both parties being well represented. Though there are many factors that may have influenced the decision of individual Israelis to vote for one party ideology or the other, the overriding concern has to be peace and security. In the past the conservative Likud party has mainly opposed unilateral evacuations of the occupied territories which of course led to the status quo of conflict with the Muslim extremists. In 2005, former Likud leader Ariel Sharon departed from his party and formed a new centrist party called Kadima. Kadima supported the evacuation of Jewish citizens from the Gaza Strip and returning the governing of this area to the Arabs. In 2006, the Gaza Arabs elected a plurality of Hamas members to the Palestinian parliament. This led to the isolation of Hamas-led Gaza by Israel and International governments. In 2007, after a civil war between Hamas and Fatah, Hamas became the sole ruling power in the Gaza Strip. Since then Hamas has fired thousands of Qassam rockets into Israel. This escalated into a full scale invasion by Israel in late 2008 which killed many Palestinians. This scenario came about because of the unilateral withdrawal by Israel from Gaza. Thus, the concept of “land for peace” appears to be a failure. However, occupation which seems to be favored by the more conservative groups also proved to be a failure. Neither position has led to peace between Israel and the Arabs. This election showed that the Israeli electorate is unsure of which direction Israel should go in the future thus representatives from both sides of the issue were elected. The one clear result from this election seems to be that Israelis decided that the liberal wing of Israeli politics do not have the answers to deal with this decades-old conflict as is evidenced by their poor showing in this election. The truth is that no matter who runs the Israeli government the Muslim extremists will never accept the right of Israel to exist. They may make temporary truces and agreements with Israel but only with the goal of eventually returning Israel to Dar al-Islam (i.e. an Islamic-run government). See my article (Why There will never be peace in Israel until the Messiah returns)
