Israel Election.

I've said that I won't get involved in Tuesday's (17/3/15) Israeli election. Mainly this is because I know when I know I'm out of my depth. Plus due to my history I'm really not sure how any opinion I have to offer will be recieved.

However it must be said that as he's matured Benjamin Netanyahu has become more impressive. I was particularly impressed by the way he handled last summer's Gaza war. This was most certainly not a war of Israel's choosing and one that actually ran completely against Netanyahu's own policy.

However Netanyahu still conducted the war in such a way as to significantly reduce the threat to Israel and completely eliminate the existing threat from Hamas' attack tunnels while at the same time making substantial efforts to protect Gaza's civilian population. This was done under huge pressure from both the Israeli right to go much further and seemingly hysterical protests from the international community including the US.

Looking around the other candidates I am not seeing anyone with the strength of character to pull off such a feat. Due to their seemingly deep love affair with the values and campaign tactics of US President Barack Obama I am particularly worried how the Zionist Union would have coped in a similar situation. After all Labor and Tzipi Livni were the architects of Operation Cast Lead which was the Gaza war that everybody was really protesting about last summer.

The strongest endorsement for Netanyahu actually comes from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The extremely shoddy special effects in ISIL's recent Muhammad Musallam video seemed to be a direct visual reference to Likud's recent "Which Way to Jerusalem bro?" campaign video. By showing off all their strong links to the West Bank in the Musallam video ISIL were hoping to undermine Likud's claim that Netanyahu is the best candidate to maintain Israel's security in an effort to make sure he lost the election.

Of course what ISIL haven't realised is that they, Hamas, Iran's nuclear program or any other aspects of Israel's security aren't considered major issues in an election that is more about the economy and Obama-esque issues of social and economic equality within Israel's Jewish population. This shift within Israeli politics is of course the product of Netanyahu's policy of "maintaining the quiet."

13:45 on 15/3/15 (UK date).