re: #424 CuriousLurker

A majority didn’t even vote for Netanyahu. His party didn’t get 60+ seats by itself. It’s a bare plurality at around 24% of the vote, which will give Likud somewhere between 27 and 30 seats.

But the rest of your point still stands. Netanyahu ≠ Israel.

Netanyahu’s refusal to accept a 2-state solution doesn’t quite pass the smell test, not when he doesn’t offer up any alternatives, and unless he’s talking about imposing an apartheid-type state or forcible expulsion of all non-Jewish populations in the West Bank and Jerusalem, he’s got some explaining to do.

Much more likely, he’s going to continue the status quo, which means that we’ll see another round of fighting with Hamas eventually (so much for Likud security cred), more fighting, and less security for Israelis both inside and outside the Green Line. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries to cut a deal with Abbas separate of the Hamas/Gaza situation to essentially create a 2.5/3 state solution, which is something that is far more likely given that Abbas has no love for Hamas and vice versa. Hamas would hate any kind of deal along those lines even more than Netanyahu and the far right in Israel, so they’d have an incentive to try and kill it.

So, it’s likely that if there’s a backchannel deal in the works that more or less gives Israel the security it needs, doesn’t partition Jerusalem, but allows Palestinians freedoms in the West Bank they haven’t had and allows them to declare Jerusalem their capital (enlarge the definition of Jerusalem and give the Eastern portion of the newly enlarged Jerusalem to their control, while either internationalizing the Temple Mount area or putting it under joint control), Hamas will carry out attacks against Israel and Fatah in an attempt to scuttle, the far right will withdraw from the govt to try and spike the deal, and Abbas will be fending off possible attacks against his regime as well.

Housing and borders are not insurmountable problems - housing can be bought, sold, built or demolished (we saw this in Gaza and Sinai). Borders can be adjusted. But people’s attitudes are far more difficult to change, and even then, you need to have leaders willing to take the leap.

I still doubt that Netanyahu or Abbas are those leaders. And that means that all the talk about a peace process are still just talk, and wont happen anytime soon - the more suckage for those living in the region.