Posting Shortly: State Sen. Says CSCOPE Will be Yanked in Texas

As Heard on Beck Radio: Wait Until You Read that Poem By One of Those Punished for Benghazi Lapses

Politics

We Reveal How Some in the Media Are Misinterpreting the Israeli Election Results (And Check Out These Interesting Voting Factoids)

Jan. 23, 2013 5:39am
Netanyahu Faces Challenge Forming Coalition But Some Media Misinterpreting the Results And Check Out These Interesting Voting Factoids

Supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu react as results come into campaign headquarters in Tel Aviv. Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images.

With 99% of the 3.6 million votes officially counted, it appeared Wednesday morning that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be tapped to form the next coalition government and thus enter his third term as the nation’s leader.

Exit polls reported by Israeli media Tuesday night were almost identical to the official results which are: Netanyahu’s Likud-Israel Beitenu 31, Yesh Atid headed by Yair Lapid 19, Labor 15, Shas 11, Jewish Home 11, United Torah Judaism 7, Hatnua 6, Meretz 6, Ra’am Ta’al 5, Hadash 4, Balad 3 and Kadima 2.

Netanyahu will have 28 days to form a coalition, with a possible two week extension if he needs more time.

After the exit polls were announced, Netanyahu told his supporters he wants to “join hands” with as many coalition partners as he can cobble together. “We have to build the widest possible government,” he said, adding, “And I have already began that work this evening.”

That won’t be easy considering each party will likely present Netanyahu a menu of demands in exchange for joining his government. In addition to Likud-Israel Beiteinu’s 31 seats, Netanyahu will need to find another 30 Knesset members for a minimum of 50%+1 to support his administration.

The big surprise of the evening was Yair Lapid who heads the new Yesh Atid (“There is a future”) party, now the second largest party in Israel.  He told a rally of his supporters, “A heavy responsibility has fallen on our shoulders today,” adding that: “Israel faces difficult challenges.” Echoing Netanyahu, he also said he wants to see a wide coalition.

Lapid talked about universal military service, the cornerstone of his campaign for which he received wide support from Israelis fed up with ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students’ exemption from service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

“The citizens of Israel have said ‘no’ today to the politics of fear and hate,” Lapid said late Tuesday night.

Considering Lapid’s large win of 19 Knesset seats, Netanyahu could conceivably exclude the ultra-Orthodox parties from his coalition which in the past provided him key support. This would allow him the maneuverability to enact a universal draft law, which the ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism vehemently oppose.

They also oppose a cut in the monthly stipend yeshiva (seminary) students receive. According to Israel Hayom, 54,000 such students receive a monthly handout of $1,200 “to any 28-year-old yeshiva student with three or four children whose wife either did not work or received an undeclared salary. For a yeshiva student of this age with a working wife, the state paid 4,100 shekels ($1,098) monthly.”

In addition, they get between $300 and $455 in housing assistance.

This is “Obama phone” plus so much more. Not surprisingly, it has elicited the resentment of a large swath of Israelis, who came out in droves to vote for Lapid’s new party.

This rejection of the unequal status quo seems to be the main theme behind Israeli voter choice. But many reports in the mainstream media are interpreting the vote as a rejection of Netanyahu’s hardline approach to the peace process with the Palestinians. Here are just a few of the misconceptions being reported:

MISCONCEPTION #1: Did the Israeli voter reject Netanyahu’s position on the peace process?

In its article, “Israeli election ends in dramatic deadlock” AP reported [emphasis added]:

Yesh Atid’s leader, Yair Lapid, has said he would only join a government committed to sweeping economic changes and a serious push to resume peace talks with the Palestinians, which have languished throughout Netanyahu’s four-year tenure.

But if you look at the Lapid party platform, nowhere do the words “peace,” “process,” or even “Palestinians” appear. He campaigned almost exclusively on domestic issues, including the high cost of living and military service burden sharing.

In fact, Lapid’s past statements suggest he may be a security hawk in the same vein as Netanyahu. On Sunday, Lapid said he has no expectations of negotiations with the Arabs. He wrote on his Facebook page, “I do not think that the Arabs want peace.”

“What I want is not a new Middle East, but to be rid of them and put a tall fence between us and them,” he wrote, adding, it’s of utmost importance “to maintain a Jewish majority in the Land of Israel.” He also insists Jerusalem never again be divided.

MISCONCEPTION #2: Did the Israeli electorate move radically to the right?

In the days leading up to the elections, publications including most notably the New Yorker warned that Israeli voters were poised to move the country radically to the right.

That prediction was belied by the results which showed foreign policy did not take a front seat in this election. A little more than a year after the social protests demanding a drop in the cost of living, it was the economy that seems to have guided voter choice.

In an article published last week before Election Day titled: “The Party Faithful: The settlers move to annex the West Bank—and Israeli politics,” David Remnick wrote:

More broadly, the story of the election is the implosion of the center-left and the vivid and growing strength of the radical right. What [Jewish Home Party’s Naftali] Bennett’s rise, in particular, represents is the attempt of the settlers to cement the occupation and to establish themselves as a vanguard party, the ideological and spiritual core of the entire country.

Remnick quoted the liberal Haaretz columnist Ari Shavit who wrote, “What is now happening is impossible to view as anything but the takeover by a colonial province of its mother country.”

Eric Trager, a Mideast scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, dispelled that model, tweeting after exit polls were announced: “Rough day for the ‘Israel is moving to the far right’ and ‘religious fundamentalism is growing everywhere in the Middle East’ paradigms.”

MISCONCEPTION #3: Is the Israeli political map evenly divided?

Another misconception being reported in the media is that the right vs. left wing blocks are equally divided, in AP’s words “a stunning deadlock.” The Israeli media are also presenting that model, which TheBlaze quoted Tuesday.

However, the pie is divided equally (60 vs. 60) only if you buy into the notion that Yesh Atid – with one-sixth of the Knesset seats is truly left-wing. And that’s not at all clear.

For example, party leader Yair Lapid’s pessimistic statements above about the peace process suggest otherwise.

And early Wednesday morning, the number two politician on the Yesh Atid list, Rabbi Shay Piron, ruled out joining forces with the left-wing Labor Party to try to block Netanyahu from forming a government. He told Army Radio: “The results are clear.”

“There is a democratic process in Israel,” he added, suggesting that the fact that Netanyahu’s party got 31 seats, far more than any other party, should dictate who forms the next government.

Some other interesting factoids that emerged from the election results:

*Number 17 on the list of Yesh Atid, the second largest party, was born in America. Rabbi Dov Lipman is from Baltimore, a Torah scholar and Johns Hopkins University graduate who was at the forefront of battling religious extremism in his town outside Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh.

*Though it’s a fiercely debated topic in the U.S., Israel requires photo IDs to be shown at the polling station. For weeks before Election Day, public service announcements ran on television reminding voters to bring their ID cards, driver’s licenses or passports to the polling station.

*The voting process is low-tech but apparently efficient. Israelis choose a paper ballot with the name of their party and its assigned acronym, place it in an envelope and then drop it in a box.

*Almost half of the Knesset’s incumbent lawmakers were voted out.

To this, Channel 2’s Political Correspondent Amit Segal tweeted: “Whoever doesn’t keep his word won’t last.”

Though it is a public that’s not universally fond of President Obama, it looks like Israelis adopted his mantra and voted for hope and change.

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

Comments (21)

  • suz
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 10:19pm

    yair lapid of the yesh atid who garnered 19% is on the right track. i think he’s “prime minister” material. i’ve always liked bb and these two should/could work very well together.

    my take on the elections is that the country has moved more to the center but not to the extent it sees the left any time soon.

    the hope and change thing in israel — hopefully it’ll last one term.

    Report this comment

    suz  
  • CathyvanDyke
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 6:14pm

    The leaders of the tiny nation of Israel MUST obey the Written Word and not be continually pressured by world opinion and the secular within their mist into conceding their God-given land to the enemy

    Why I Like Naftali Bennett
    by Shaul Magid Jan 17, 2013 12:30 PM EST
    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/17/why-i-like-naftali-bennett.html

    Exodus 23:31-33
    I will establish your borders from the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds) to the Sea of the Philistines, (Mediterranean) and from the desert to the River . I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.

    Leviticus 25:23
    “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.”

    Numbers 33:55-56
    But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them .

    Report this comment

    CathyvanDyke  
  • tonypro
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 5:02pm

    Soros, rockhead fellows, frothchilds, etc., have expanded at such a level that the only thing these criminals don’t control is our belief of, and willingness to fight for our personal freedom.

    Make no mistake they are trying to put that fire out, but it will not happen as history has taught us since the very first written history this battle has existed, and men with souls will NEVER stop fighting the good fight. Not then, not now, not EVER.

    Report this comment

     
  • Tigress1
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 12:31pm

    “Though it is a public that’s not universally fond of President Obama, it looks like Israelis adopted his mantra and voted for hope and change.”

    This isn’t surprising – at least the “hope and change” part. They are an economically Socialist country after all!

    Report this comment

    Tigress1  
  • The Big Mick
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 11:21am

    Not so much Critical Thinking HERE.
    Show of hands, who DOESN’T know we have MANY MORE than “2″ Parties here?
    Thus we do NOT have a “two party” system.
    We simply have a bunch of Morons who have not FORMED effective alliances to CHALLENGE the Dominant Parties.
    Back in 2000? I took a :”Candidate Match” test and discovered that ONLY the “Greens” and “Commies” were Close to the DumbolCrap Commiequeers on the Spectrum.
    EVERYBODY else, Libertarians, Constitution, Natural Law—-and now I would imagine “Tea Party” were 1. Much closer to the Repubelickums. 2. More importantly MUCH closer to EACH OTHER than ANY were to the Dumbolcrap Commiequeers.
    That’s a Coallition waiting to Change the System Folks, Drive the Socialist Straights into the Greens and Commies, the Moronic Mythical “Middle” “Moderates” into the Socialism Lite of the Dumbolcrap-Repubelickum “Party” and the 33% who are Radically Extremely Jeffersonian LIMITED Government Types into a “Leave Me the He ll Alone” Party that prevents the other two from advancing any further into Socialism. [See Walter Williams April 7, 2010 Column "Parting Company]
    Course that DOES mean the KiddiePorn and Pot PseudoLibertineAryans have to find a way to get along with the Right to Lifer Christians.

    Report this comment

    The Big Mick  
  • The Big Mick
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 11:10am

    Who was it that said “all Politics is Local”?
    So when are AMERICANS going to get fed up with “some dumbcits are more equal than others” with the Bums on the Dole in THIS Country? When are we going to demand the La Raza Reconquistas get the he ll OUT and come back legal or get a bullet in the brain like any other INVADER? When are we going to Throw out the Union Mafia Protection Racket Gang Thug Slugs, the Welfare Bums, the Hoswith 9 kids by 12 different men. When do we level the Gangstahoods and hang the Hoodies?When are we going to End the Social Security Scam, execute the Bums on Disability, tell the Gray Panthers hand off MY wallet Granny, no Viagra for YOU?
    Looks to me the Issues are the same, Freeloaders vrs Producers.

    Report this comment

    The Big Mick  
  • 700P
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 10:08am

    The difference Americans fail to understand is Israel still has public schools that teach Critical Thinking instead of the Maoist indoctrination centers that we have here now.

    Report this comment

    700P  
  • soybomb315_II
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:50am

    “That won’t be easy considering each party will likely present Netanyahu a menu of demands in exchange for joining his government. In addition to Likud-Israel Beiteinu’s 31 seats, Netanyahu will need to find another 30 Knesset members for a minimum of 50%+1 to support his administration.”
    ___________
    Wouldnt it be nice if we had muli-party system so that someone like Obama would have to form coalition with another party in order to gain power?…..Or if the republicans win, they have to form coalition with Constitution or Libertarian Party? That would be better than the straight up progressive, one-party rule that we get after every election

    Report this comment

    soybomb315_II  
    • soybomb315_II
      Posted on January 23, 2013 at 8:07am

      Countries with multiparty system:
      England, Israel, Germany, France, most of EU, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, India

      Countries with two-party system:
      USA, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, most of Africa

      Report this comment

      soybomb315_II  
    • tzion
      Posted on January 23, 2013 at 9:04am

      Strangely, Egypt is almost beating us in that regard, though admittedly things have yet to stabilize so a one or two-party system could be the end result.

      Report this comment

      tzion  
  • Stab_friendly
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:31am

    Bibi is weakened… somuch for that hard line rhetoric…now instead of winning by a landslide, a tv personality has him squirming…

    Report this comment

    Stab_friendly  
  • GUYFROMMAINE
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:27am

    Glad Bibi’s party won. Hope he remains Israel’s Prime Minister. Don’t know much about Lapid, but like what he wrote. “What I want is not a new Middle East, but to be rid of them and put a tall fence between us and them,” he wrote, adding, it’s of utmost importance “to maintain a Jewish majority in the Land of Israel.” Boy, wish we would do the same at our southern border and also maintain an American majority.

    Report this comment

    GUYFROMMAINE  
  • willingtoupe
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 6:45am

    Out of all the social freebees given out from the U.S. tax $$, Israel gets the most. The stimulus is a laughable amount compared to what was and is already given to them while they have control of the global financial sector. G.O.P lets get it together and truly fight this careless spending.

    Rand Paul, Where are you?

    Report this comment

    willingtoupe  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 6:09am

    I like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; he’s a true Statesman.
    Wish we had more people like him in Congress.

    “Netanyahu will have 28 days to form a coalition, with a possible two week extension if he needs more time.”
    He’ll get this done quicker that the US Senate will come up with a budget…..

    Report this comment

    The-Monk  
    • RJJinGadsden
      Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:03am

      Hi MONK, It seems that I feed the same way you regarding Netanyahu. Too bad that his brother who was killed during the Entebbe raid, is not here to serve with him.
      LOL, yeah, that will be a lot faster than Dingy Harry will have anything to do with a budget.

      Report this comment

      RJJinGadsden  
  • NOBALONEY
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 5:42am

    The next Israeli governmemt will be looking for better relations with President Obama. At this moment I don’t see Netanyahu staying on as Prime Minister.

    Report this comment

    NOBALONEY  
    • GUYFROMMAINE
      Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:19am

      That will be hard to do because Obama doesn’t want a good relationship with Israel, unless Israel gives everything over to the “Palestinians.”

      Report this comment

      GUYFROMMAINE  
    • tzion
      Posted on January 23, 2013 at 10:00am

      You going to explain how you know this? From where I’m standing, the party most concerned about mending relations with Obama is Labor, which is almost certainly not going to be part of the government at all. After all, they are now the third in line for forming a government.

      Report this comment

      tzion  

Sign In To Post Comments! Sign In

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!

Glenn Beck Radio

Listen to Glenn Beck 24/7 Listen Now
Restoring Love