Netanyahu wins, New York Times crestfallen

Against all odds, life and freedom have won, and Netanyahu has emerged the victor over those who would appease and accommodate the forces who proudly proclaim that they love death and destruction. The New York Times couldn’t be more furious, and vents its bile against Netanyahu in this spiteful piece charging him with running a “racist” and “divisive” campaign. Does anyone still persist in the fantasy that the New York Times is an objective, nonpartisan reporter of the news? If so, note the words and phrases I have highlighted in this petulant piece lamenting that the jihad enablers didn’t prevail.

“Netanyahu Ahead in Israel Election Over His Chief Rival,” by Jodi Rudoren, New York Times, March 17, 2015:

TEL AVIV — After a bruising campaign focused on his failings, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel emerged from Tuesday’s elections in the best position to form a new government, though he offended many voters and alienated allies in the process.

While the results were still incomplete early Wednesday, Israeli news sites reported that Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party was likely to wind up with 30 of the 120 seats in Parliament, and that his chief rival, the center-left Zionist Union alliance, would take 24 seats.

The official Central Elections Committee site showed that with just over 68 percent of the votes counted, Likud had 23.3 percent of the vote to the Zionist Union’s 18.8 percent.

Earlier, exit polls had reported that the race was much closer, with Likud clinging to a narrow lead. But the actual results showed a surge for Likud and Mr. Netanyahu.

Mr. Netanyahu and his allies celebrated with singing and dancing. While his opponents vowed a fight, Israeli political analysts agreed that he had the advantage, with more votes having gone to the right-leaning parties likely to support him.

It was a turnabout from the last pre-election polls published Friday, which showed the Zionist Union, led by Isaac Herzog, with a four- or five-seat lead and building momentum. To bridge the gap, Mr. Netanyahu embarked on a last-minute scorched-earth campaign, promising that no Palestinian state would be established as long as he remained in office and insulting Arab citizens….

But it remained to be seen how his divisive — some said racist — campaign tactics would affect his ability to govern a fractured Israel.Citing the exit polls, Mr. Herzog celebrated what he called “an incredible achievement,” noting that his Labor Party had not won as many seats since 1992. He said he had formed a negotiating team in hopes of forming “a real social government in Israel” that “aspires to peace with our neighbors.”…

Mr. Netanyahu may be able to form a narrow coalition of nationalist and religious parties free of the ideological divisions that stymied his last government. That was what he intended when he called early elections in December. But such a coalition, with a slim parliamentary majority, might not last long.

In the coming days, President Reuven Rivlin will poll party leaders to see whom they prefer as prime minister and then charge Mr. Netanyahu or Mr. Herzog with trying to stitch together a coalition, though Mr. Rivlin said Tuesday night that he would suggest they join forces instead.

“I am convinced that only a unity government can prevent the rapid disintegration of Israel’s democracy and new elections in the near future,” he told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz….

Tuesday’s balloting came just 26 months after Israel’s last election, but the dynamic was entirely different. In 2013, there was no serious challenge to Mr. Netanyahu. That changed this time, when Mr. Herzog teamed up with Tzipi Livni to form the Zionist Union, an effort to reclaim the state’s founding pioneer philosophy from a right-wing that increasingly defines it in opposition to Palestinian aspirations….

Mr. Netanyahu talked mainly about the threats of an Iranian nuclear weapon and Islamic terrorism, addressing economics only in the final days. That was also when he made a sharp turn to the right, backing away from his 2009 endorsement of a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict and sounding an alarm Tuesday morning that Arabs were voting “in droves.”

Many voters complained about a bitter campaign of ugly attacks and a lack of inspiring choices….

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