Israel Hate US Slightly Less the Obama Does.

Yesterday Israel held a general election which to the surprise of no-one was won by incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu's centre right Likud party. They will most likely go on to form a coalition with the Yesh Atid party which is essentially Kadima in new clothes. However the result that everyone was interested in was how the ultra-nationalist Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) party would perform because they were an essential part of Obama's efforts to get Chuck Hagel confirmed as defence secretary. The idea being that such a controversial appointment would provoke a surge in votes for parties like Habayit Hayehundi and then having been seen to strenghen Jewish Zionism the US Republicans would drop their opposition to Hagel. Of course the downside of that strategy is that the US ends up with Chuck Hagel as defence secretary. In the end Habayit Hayehundi only won 11 seats which is 1 less then they were predicted prior to Hagel's nomination.

Of course the only way that Likud was able to secure it's narrow victory was by merging with the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party. Therefore despite Habayit Hayehundi's poor showing the election results represent a large shift in Israeli politics towards ultra-nationalism driven largely by the new threats Israel faces caused by the Arab Spring. So while I don't want to cause the Norwegians any problems they may want to consider revoking Obama's Nobel Peace Prize because any hope of the two state solution is gone now.

Oh and while I'm here I should point out that Hillary Clinton's mentioning of AFRICOM during the Benghazi hearing which took place during the Africa Cup of Nations was the US trying to find out if it's got any friends left in Africa post Contra Mundum.

17:05 on 23/1/13.

Edited at around 20:20 on 23/1/13 to add: The hearing on Benghazi is still going on and the Democrats especially the ones from California are not coming out of this at all well. They're all using it as an opportunity to congratulate Hillary Clinton on her success as Secretary of State when in reality in just four short years she has managed to do far more damage to US interests abroad then George W Bush managed in eight years and two deeply unpopular wars.

The award for most stupid question so far must go to Brad Sherman for asking if after all the help the US had given them the Libyan people could be relied upon to pursue the people who carry out this sort of attack. That of course would be the same Libyan people who forced Ansar al-Sharia out of Benghazi while Clinton and Obama were trying to fuel Olympic discussion about PTSD through that overly theatrical remains ceremony. So Clinton does appear to be running the Nero defence that she was fiddling while Benghazi burned.