Netanyahu is the devil's gift to international terrorism, which his policies will provoke. Fifty years from now, the turn of Israel to the hard right will be looked back upon as the beginning of the end of Israel, the time when the crucial decisions were made that rendered it impossible for the Israelis to stay in the Middle East in the face of the increasing popular anger Netanyahu will have provoked in 1.5 billion Muslims. No, Israel cannot be defeated on the battleground. But the French colons in Algeria were never really defeated on the battleground, either, nor were the thousands of Britons who had ruled India.
That’s Juan Cole, commenting this morning on the fact that Netanyahu will form the next government in Israel.
Some day, somebody else in the region – Iran, or maybe Saudi Arabia, or even Egypt or Syria – will get a nuclear weapon, taking the nuclear strategic advantage away from the Israelis. Then, the Israelis will have their George Armstrong Custer moment, waking up one morning, looking out across the hills, and thinking to themselves, “Damn, that’s a lot of Muslims.”
The United States is probably in for a rough ride with the Likudniks, too:
More immediately, all Americans will have reason to rue Netanyahu's return to power, since the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other elements of the powerful Israel lobbies will pull Congress around to support Likudnik policies in the next few years.
And it won't even be allowed to protest where Netanyahu will take America.
All the elements of a slow motion Greek tragedy are now in place.
A thump of the tail to Norwegianity, although Spot would have gotten around to it eventually.
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