Thursday, September 17, 2015

Netanyahu's Long Running Losing Streak

From Haaretz concerning the passing of the agreement with Iran in the United States.
In his nine and a half years as prime minister, he has yet to win a single strategic victory (as opposed to a political one). Not over Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the 1990s; not over Hamas; not over Iran. Zero successes. Nothing of what he promised materialized. He has been left with his cartoon drawing of a nuclear bomb, and the Iranians with the capability he swore they would never get.

Politically, his balance sheet is four victories (1996, 2009, 2013, 2015) and two losses (1999, 2006). Using the accounting system he seeks to apply to the agreement with Iran – “Most of the American public opposes it” – he actually won only the first time, when there were direct elections for prime minister. All the other times, three out of four Israelis – once even nine out of 10 (in 2006) – voted against him. He became prime minister in three successive terms only thanks to the deals he concocted with other politicians. (Amir Oren, Netanyahu's Losing Streak Shows No Sign of Ending, Haaretz, September 6, 2015.)

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