OPINION:
President Obama must reconcile himself to more “hard-line” leadership from newly reelected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Imagine — Israel, a nation the size of New Jersey, elected a “hard-line” government just because it has a toxic mix of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Rape of Nanking and the Spanish Inquisition on its borders and 1.3 billion contentious, ungovernable neighbors. The morning after the Israeli election the Tunisian Parliament was shot up. Just another day in the non-Israeli Middle East.
The main thing is that none of the Israeli election losers are going to be thrown off tall buildings, vanish into dungeons or dragged behind motorcycles. Nor are the victors (and their progeny) going to govern until they are unseated by a violent coup instead of being replaced by another peaceful, honest election. Nor is a doddering Jimmy Carter needed to eye the Israeli election like a theodolitic, sharp-eyed vulture to ensure fidelity. At the time of this writing, a whopping 51 cases of suspected voter fraud are being investigated in Israel.
Mr. Carter can stay home, Mr. Obama can keep his nose out of Israel’s politics and our narcissistic, Nobel-Prize-chasing, anti-Israel secretary of state can at least try to work with the only democratic state in the Middle East and the only nation on Earth with the courage to stand up to Iran.
BOB SARGEANT
Spotsylvania, Va.
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