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Peter Wehner posts on Netanyahu’s historic win and obama’s humiliating loss.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stunning victory yesterday — polls at the end of last week had people writing off his chances — means he will become only the second person to be elected prime minister for a third term (the other being Israel’s founder David Ben-Gurion). “King Bibi” has established himself as one of the dominant figures in the history of the modern state of Israel. Mr. Netanyahu is hardly a person without flaws. But for those of us who admire his toughness and moral clarity on world events — and who appreciate his obvious love for his nation and for ours — it was a splendid turn of events.
As for the current occupant of the White House, it was a disastrous one.
Barack Obama has an obsessive animosity when it comes to Prime Minister Netanyahu, which he has demonstrated time and again. So much so that Obama and his aides did everything they could to influence the Israeli election, from smearing Mr. Netanyahu — referring to him as a “coward” and a “chickens***” …
John Podhoretz has more on Bibi’s win and the American president’s loss.
… The president (or his team) shipped close campaign aides to Israel to help Bibi’s opponents, and one State Department-funded group helped coordinate the line of attack.
The strategists going after him figured out that the key to the election was to stimulate what might be called “Bibi exhaustion” in the electorate. Their approach was to remind centrist voters of Bibi’s failure to do anything about the nation’s spiraling cost-of-living crisis, which had helped bring hundreds of thousands of Israelis into the streets in mass protests in 2011.
It worked. A bit. The Zionist Union won something like 24 seats, an improvement for its core Labor Party from 15 seats just two years ago. But the thing is, Israel’s left doesn’t have any answers to the nation’s pressing problems either — and is seen as too ready to capitulate on hard-core defense and security issues.
So, in the final days of the election, trapped in his own backfield, the Zionist Union coming hard upon him as Obama and his minions cheered from the skyboxes, Bibi eluded its grasp and made his move. Love him or hate him, you have to admit that Bibi pulled off a pretty spectacular piece of footwork in the most exciting election finish I can remember.
More from WSJ Editors.
… The victory is a remarkable personal triumph for Mr. Netanyahu, who is now Israel’s second longest-serving Prime Minister after David Ben-Gurion. He gambled that he could assemble a more stable center-right coalition, as well as by giving a high-stakes speech to the U.S. Congress on Iran two weeks before the election, and in the final days stressing above all the security themes that must be Israel’s abiding concern.
Mr. Netanyahu and Likud were trailing in the polls in the final week as the opposition stressed the rising cost of food and housing and an economy that had slowed to about 3% growth from near 6% in 2010. But in the closing days Mr. Netanyahu played up that foreigners (read: President Obama) wanted him defeated, …
Jennifer Rubin posts on President Petulant.
… At this point, Obama’s gross pettiness and rudeness are there for all to see. There is little argument that he has been trying to oust Netanyahu, creating a federal case out of a speech and dispensing aides to badmouth him on background to docile reporters. Obama obviously was a “loser” in one sense, but unlike the real loser (Herzog), Obama cannot bear to call and congratulate the elected leader of the Jewish state. This is not just an insult to Netanyahu, but to the democratic country that elected him. For goodness sake, Obama has called Vladimir Putin to congratulate him after an election widely believed to be fraudulent.
There can be little doubt why relations are so poor. Obama shows more deference to the unelected dictatorships in China, Russia and Iran than he does to our closest Middle East ally. Unfortunately, that message rightly or wrongly is received by our foes that even when it comes to such an ally, the U.S. administration will kick its “friend” to the curb. That communication does more to weaken our bargaining hand than does a letter from 47 senators — which actually tried to impress on the Iranians they had to give us a better deal to get Congress on board.
There is no word as to whether Hillary Clinton has sent her congratulations. But it is clear she has decided to embrace the Obama foreign policy. With that goes the willingness to snub and undercut friends in search of deals with foes who will not keep their word. Nothing could speak more plainly about this administration than the Obama post-election sulking.
This is a good spot for a post from Mark Steyn on a lawyer who was killed in Pakistan. Remember the doctor who helped us find Bin Laden? Well, his lawyer was just gunned down in Peshawar.
… The doctor is in jail because he’s a friend of America. The lawyer is dead because he’s a friend of a friend of America. How come the United States could plan a flawless operation to bust into Osama’s compound and put a bullet in him, but it couldn’t do a thing for the operation’s indispensable human intelligence?
This is usually the point where I quote the great Bernard Lewis’ words when we chanced to be on a panel discussion a few years back – that America risked being seen as harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend. And so it goes, from Iran to the Islamic State to the morgue of the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar.
Andrew Malcolm with late night humor.
Gov. Scott Walker at the Gridiron Dinner: “Hillary Clinton isn’t here tonight. When I asked why, I was told you couldn’t afford her.”
“When Jeb Bush was governor in Florida, he had to deal with a left-wing dictator just 90 miles from his border. I can relate: I have the same thing with Rahm Emanuel.”
“The staff exodus in this administration has begun. Pretty soon, the only one left reporting to Valerie Jarrett will be President Obama.”