Now that I’m trying to personally make peace in the Middle East, I’m paying particular attention to the region.

This, from a new Haaretz editorial, may be important:

Israel’s legitimate struggle against Hamas does not gain credence from the fact that the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry, discovered during his visit to Gaza that trucks loaded with bags of pasta are not being permitted to enter the Gaza Strip because Israel is letting in only rice. 

Haaretz also makes the astute argument that “You can’t make Qassams out of pasta.”

Here is a very interesting piece hoping for the possibility of a return to power of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Definitely lots to debate in it, but I think it’s pretty sharp. I’ve been meaning to find the time to write something sort of similar for a North American publication, but haven’t found it yet…

It looks like Benjamin Netanyahu is going to be the next prime minister of Israel, and it sounds like Tzipi Livni’s Kadima party is going to stay out of the coalition. That will make it one of the most rightwing coalitions in recent Israeli history, and give Netanyahu room — or even cause — to push an extremely rightwing agenda. If that’s what he really wants.

While everyone waits to find out how the results of the Israeli election will actually shake out, President Shimon Peres keeps ‘em laughing:

On Wednesday at 6 P.M., I will get the official results, and until then I hesitate to even discuss the subject with myself for fear that it will be leaked to the press and misinterpreted.

(Haaretz)

Democratic chaos?

At this point, it still seems uncertain who won, though apparently Livni is polling slightly ahead. She would still have the challenge of putting together a coalition, though — which does not look easy at all with the way things seem to be shaking out.

I just find the fact that Yisrael Beiteinu beat out Labour by so much to be depressing and ominous.

If I were an Israeli voter, I would likely not be voting for Benjamin Netanyahu and I would definitely not be voting for rightist wackjob Avigdor Lieberman – who, frighteningly, recently won a mock election among Israeli high school students.

In fact, not long ago, I ran the numbers and did a projection of a how a President Obama/Prime Minister Netanyahu interaction might go. Here are the results. (Hint: not good.)

But since then I’ve been thinking that maybe that interaction could be a recipe for some success. If Tzipi Livni and her Kadima party end up winning, the consensus seems to be that the ruling coalition would be fragile and would not have the people’s confidence to make the “painful concessions” Prime Minister Sharon used to talk about. Maybe that’s true. Maybe not.

Given the right amount of persuasion from an Obama White House, though, maybe a Netanyahu-Lieberman government would have the hardline cred needed to actually make the obvious moves towards some kind of improvement in the situation.

Or maybe their policies would end up just being the same boring, unproductive ones that they advertise.