Netanyahu to be next prime minister of Israel.

I have been following Israeli elections with an interest this year because of the increased pressure that Obama will put on that little country. Obama’s 7 person delegation to Durban II is already an extremely distressing sign that he might rescind his commitment to Israel – not like that should be a huge surprise to anyone. Bibi gets the nod.

Despite Bibi’s perceived radicalism and refusal to negotiate with almost anyone, like I said before this is a wonderful development and largely boosted by the leader of Yisrael Beiteinu (Avigdor Lieberman) who finally broke silence and stood behind Netanyahu. Israel needs a fiscally conservative strong minded leader, now more than ever. While I always think a country needs to be run by fiscal conservatives, in times of need and global hardship these types of leaders are paramount. I just wish Americans understood that before election Mr. Hope and Change, lets just hope Bibi does not piss off our new fragile leader or there goes that 30 billion dollar promise.

Like always with Israeli politics, the process of forming a government is tricky and can take shape in a variety of ways. Largely depending on where Bibi decides to take it – my guess is that he will probably lean to center, a failure to do so will alienate a large portion of Israel’s representation.

Israel elections Likud and Kadima duke it out.

I am not an expert on Israeli elections, but suffice it to say that the process is far more complicated than it is here. Israel has numerous parties many of whom have seats in the Knesset. Israelis go to the voting booths and select a party, not any particular individual politician like we do here. Because no party can ever win a majority, they form coalitions and then pick their PM. As you may have heard Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu was a very likely PM choice just a short two weeks ago. As it is with politics things have changed dramatically and now it seems like the centrist party had edged Bibi out.

I won’t lie to you, I am all for Bibi and I think Israel needs him. He is a strong conservative, he will not negotiate with terrorists and will respect and use the IDF correctly. More importantly however he is a fiscal conservative. As finance minister he has reportedly done wonders in the banking sector and dramatically improved the GDP of Israel. I cannot stress the paramount important of economic freedom as I believe that economic freedom is the ultimate path to individual liberties. Once you unleash the freedom of human ingenuity the rest tends to follow.

If you are interested in learning more about the Israeli elections, I got two great resources for you, since I plead ignorance on the subject.

Yid with Lid. Who knows more about Israeli elections than a yid? Especially one with a lid?
Clyde from Patriot Room. Clyde has been following the Israeli elections and operation Cast Lead since day 1.

That should give you everything you need!