Now that the certainty of a continued Benjamin Netanyahu prime ministership has scraped through, the Kremlinology is on.
Whom does Bibi partner with? And what does that signal for financial policy/ military enlistment policy/ Iran and peacemaking?
As far as peacemaking goes, Netanyahu’s office just honked out a fat, rounded signal as follows:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening (Monday, 28 January 2013), met with international quartet envoy Tony Blair. The Prime Minister said: "The Middle East doesn’t stop for elections, everything continues. We need to work on peace and security and there’s no better person to work with than you."
Envoy Blair said, "I look forward to working with you on these peace and security issues in the time ahead. We’ve got many challenges but I’m sure they can be overcome with good will and hard work."
Will we see an aggressive foray into peacemaking? Or at least smoother cooperation with the peace-brokers?
Who knows? This statement doesn’t portend anything, necessarily. The dynamics of coalition talks and of the governments that follow them are unpredictable — Israel’s political trajectory has always been its own beast.
But considering that Yair Lapid appears to be Netanyahu’s most favored partner, and considering the makeup of Lapid’s list, as analyzed by J.J. Goldberg at the Daily Beast and considering Lapid’s own past statements, as rounded up by Barak Ravid at Haaretz (Hebrew) it’s … interesting.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
