Netanyahu Wins

In a fairly surprising development Netanyahu's Likud Party experienced a last minute surge and won 30 seats in the Israeli elections.

Some analysts believe the surge can be traced to last minute hard line promises about expanding settlements in the occupied territories and even potentially annexing some of the disputed areas.

The victory probably assures a widening rift between Israel and her allies in Europe and the United States.

Part of the problem is the Israelis feel confident that the US isn't going to abandon them regardless of how foolish they act toward a long term peace settlement.

Netanyahu's policies are good for Netanyahu and Likud in the short term but in the long term they are a disaster for Israel and the region as a whole.

Likud keeps putting off any chance for a permanent solution in exchange for political benefit. It just goes to show that other electorates can be as dump as the American electorate.

Ultimately someone in Israel is going to have to figure out they're getting no where fast and a change of policy is required. Hopefully that will happen before too many more people get killed.