Opinion Mixed results

In Tel Aviv, it was an emphatic victory for Binyamin Netanyahu and his Likud party. In a polity that has traditionally returned coalitions to power, the Likud has won at least 30 out of 120 seats in the Knesset and will soon be shopping for allies. After calling for early elections in December, Netanyahu defied predictions of defeat and seems poised to become Israel’s longest serving head of state. But it is a victory that could signal a consolidation of the hard right in Israel and has been greeted with a degree of unease by the international community. Both factors may spell more trouble for the peace process with Palestine.

While the rival centre-left Zionist Union had built a campaign on everyday issues and growing inequalities, Netanyahu largely failed to address these. Instead, he returned to the old orthodoxies and ultra-nationalist posturing, rejecting the possibility of a Palestinian state and admitting that he had approved Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem in the 1990s. On the eve of elections, faced with reports of flagging support, he chose to ratchet up fears about Arab voters flocking to the polling booths, endangering “right-wing rule”. It was a corrosive bout of demagoguery that has heightened insecurities among the country’s Arab minority and laid bare the fissures in Israeli society, between religious and secular, left and right.

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Not surprisingly, Netanyahu’s campaign has sparked alarm in Palestine. It has also raised hackles in the West, especially the US. President Barack Obama’s personal belief in a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict lies undermined by Netanyahu’s maximalist position, which means peace talks under the aegis of the US will take a hit. Since Netanyahu’s renewed belligerence has few takers abroad, he will also find it hard to win concessions for Israel in international forums. In the days ahead, his first priority should be to clear the bitter aftertaste left by the campaign, both within the country and without.