“A decade after Israelis drummed him from office,” Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to take power one again, said the Chicago Tribune in an editorial. The question is: Which Netanyahu will take office? The “touchy-feely” one who said he will help Palestinians rebuild the West Bank, or the “arrogant, hardheaded Dr. No-Two-State-Solution”? Our first clue will be if he can bring his “moderate rival,” the Kadima party’s Tzipi Livni, into a centrist government.
If Livni is smart, she’ll say no to being a “fig leaf” for Netanyahu, said Jeff Barak in The Jerusalem Post. Israeli voters gave Kadima one more seat in parliament than Likud, but they also “clearly gave the Right a mandate to govern.” Livni should let them govern alone—hopefully, the resulting “ugly picture” will mean an “early end” to Netanyahu’s far-right coalition.
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