What You Need to Know about Playing the Likud Coalition

From AICbackground

--For Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud, objection to the peace process is not rooted in mean-spiritedness, but in the deeply held belief that the current Palestinian leadership is totally untrustworthy. Netanyahu has declared that Likud is willing to talk with the Palestinians whenever their leadership renounces violence and demonstrates its willingness to interact honestly with the Israeli government.

--Mr. Netanyahu retains great personal popularity in the West, and especially in the United States. This owes, in part, to Netanyahu's skill as an English speaker, owing to the fact that he attended MIT and worked in the United States for many years. Mr. Netanyahu has also been an eloquent symbol for those diaspora Jews who support a militarily strong Israel, and who fear both that Israel is too often blamed in the West for defending itself, and that she may be bullied by the West into accepting a lousy deal in any peace negotiations.

--For the religious Right (including many in Likud), the West Bank cannot be given up, because it is part of the Holy Land promised by God to the Jewish People. Any attempt to divide or relinquish this land is anathema to these believers, and as such Likud and its allies have many members who absolutely will not agree to give up another portion of the Occupied Territories. While they are not a majority of the Right, this religious conviction, in some ways very similar to that of Hamas, always plays its part in Likud discussions of the peace process.

--Benjamin Netanyahu retook the Prime Ministership in 2009 with two powerful strikes against him in the eyes of the West. First, Netanyahu publicly opposed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, advocating instead for a kind of economic cooperation that would someday lead to a political resolution. Strike two is Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, seen by many as virulently anti-Arab, rendering him as a kind of political poison. Though many suggest that Netanyahu's opposition to a two-state solution is a cagey enterprise that will give him a political chip to play, others worry that his stance may seriously jeopardize his relationship with the United States and Europe, putting his entire government at risk.