Election result spells the end of Israeli-Palestinian peace process
That the right wing led by the Likud party won the Israeli parliamentary elections with a comfortable majority means there is little hope of breaking the deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Ma Xiaolin, a researcher in international politics with the Beijing Foreign Studies University, comments in an article for Beijing Youth Daily:
The coalition government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu opposes the removal of Jewish settlements on land that Palestinians envision for a future state. And its victory shows that even the mild proposals of the Blue and White party, the second largest political alliance in Israel, which supports the coexistence of "two states", have lost public support since the negotiations have stalled. Thus, neither the ruling party nor the opposition party can bring new hopes to the peace process.
That the Blue and White obtained 35 seats in the parliament election, only one seat less than the Likud, indicates that the influence of Netanyahu and Likud has declined, and some voters hoped to see a change of prime minister. But the overall result shows that most Israelis want to maintain the status quo, supporting the forming of a coalition government so that Netanyahu and Likud can still steer the future of the country.
Netanyahu has ridden the wave of Israeli nationalism by emphasizing the priority of Israel and Jewish people, and has acted accordingly in handling the relations with Israel's neighbors and regional foes. He has been assisted in this by the unprecedented support he has gained from the United States on the issue of sovereignty over Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Something which will no doubt be extended to his vow to annex the settlements in the West Bank.
Washington has shown unprecedented favor to Israel, resulting in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks being marginalized. The inability of the pro-peace Mahmoud Abbas administration and the hard-line Hamas to reach a consensus on a unified appeal and tactics for the talks with Israel has not helped matters. Especially as the Arab world is split, with the pro-peace Egypt mired in domestic economic transformation, and the Gulf countries intent on containing Iran together with Israel and the US.
After the new Netanyahu administration overcomes the graft allegations at home, which it seems certain to do, it will continue to take advantage of the regional chaos to maximize Israel's national and strategic interests, particularly by seeking to further contain Iran's strategic expansion, so as to safeguard Israel's security.
