With Israeli Vote In, Netanyahu Could Remain Thorn In Obama's Side

[Purveyor]

(Reuters) - After six years of testy relations, U.S. President Barack Obama may have to resign himself to the likelihood that he has not seen the last of Benjamin Netanyahu.

A better-than-expected showing by the Israeli prime minister in Tuesday’s closely fought election raises the prospect that he could remain a thorn in Obama’s side, with the two men increasingly at odds over Iran diplomacy and Middle East peacemaking.

U.S. officials responded cautiously as they waited to see whether Netanyahu or his center-left challenger, Isaac Herzog, would get the nod from Israel’s president to begin the long and messy coalition-building process.

Clearly the result that many of Obama’s supporters had hoped for – a repudiation by Israeli voters of Netanyahu’s hard-line approach – was not to be. Exit polls showed that his Likud party had erased its rival’s pre-election lead, putting the two sides in a dead heat.

“Looks like the White House will need to let the champagne chill a bit longer,” Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator for Republican and Democratic administrations, tweeted about the election outcome.

more...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/18/us-israel-election-usa-idUSKBN0ME01Z20150318

[Cali_Democrat]

1. Easy way for Obama to stick it to Nutty Yahoo and the GOPers:

Congress is obviously compromised at this point.

All Obama has to do is take any nuclear deal directly to the UN Security Council and vote yea.

The whole world applauds while Nutty Yahoo and the GOPers cry foul.

Obama then makes clear he will not attack Iran.

That's the best way to flip the neocons the bird.

[Cha]

2. I know huh.. my money is on President Obama.. not some other country's rwinger like

Netanyahu.. or Putin.

[brush]

3. What to make of this election result?

What does Netanyahu's last minute lurch to the extreme right with his racist warning about "Arab voters" and his declaration that there would be no Palestinian state say about the Israeli state?

It's disappointing that Israeli voters bought into that naked, racist appeal.

Let's not kid ourselves, it's an apartheid state and the vote to put Netanyahu and Likud back in validates that.

Guess there will be more and more settlements taking over Arab land.

[MohRokTah]

4. Obama should completely ignore him.

NEver speak to him.

Never invite him to anything.

Cut. Him. Off.

[yeoman6987]

5. ThecPresident only has 16 months left

He only has a short time to get Bibi. Bibi will just run the clock probably.