If Netanyahu stays in power, should the U.S. continue to provide military aid to Israel?

[Ken Burch]

48. Herzog was only slightly better-Herzog as a person, though, wasn't the point.

Meretz(the peace party)would have been in his coalition, and the Joint List(Israeli Arab parties)would have had an influence. Now it's going to be government of, by, and for the zealots and the inflexible.

It just feels like all hope permanently died in the I/P situation tonight, and that Netanyahu will now be in office for at least another decade-if he is replaced by a more progressive government that much later, will it be worth anything that that happens?

And what hope is there now that they've apparently just re-elected a man who promised that a Palestinian state will never happen? How can there ever possibly be peace without Palestinian self-determination being recognized(it goes without saying that it isn't possible for either side, Palestinian OR Israeli, to score a decisive military victory, and that neither side would show any magnanimity to the other if they somehow did). It's going to become a real question whether an Israel that is keeping itself in a permanent war by refusing to stop oppressing another people can possibly be a safe haven or a real homeland for those Israel purports to represent, though.

(On another note, I'm a bit puzzled that you describe Israel as a country that is "embrac(ing) socialism". The state has social democratic roots, but it's just become more and more and more right-wing capitalist since the dawn of the Likud Ascendancy in 1977. Hardly anything of the social values of Ben-Gurion or Golda Meir survives at all. And the political left seems weaker than ever(even with an assist from Livni's core voters, Herzog's list, whose program is the most watered-down form of social democracy possible, only took about 20% of the vote. Meretz only took about 4%, and the Hadash(non-zionist left)component of the Arab list probably only amounted to about 4% to 5% as well).