Despite the mainstream media's aversion to India's prime minister on account of his "populist" and nationalist brand of politics, his tenure has been good for business, trade and development and for relations with the Jewish state.
The 69-year-old Netanyahu's apparent victory against long odds seemed to seal his aura of invincibility in the eyes of many Israelis, with some resigning themselves to living under many more years of his rule. But various political machinations in Israel’s unwieldy parliamentary system have created an unprecedented repeat election.
The alleged Israeli strike on Iranian assets in Syria sends the message that the Islamic republic cannot hide behind its regional proxies, and that its activities remain exposed to Israeli intelligence and firepower.
Middle East experts agree that whatever the goal of the aberrant rocket launch on Saturday, Israel is responding not to Syrian President Bashar Assad but to Iran.
Israel has yet to determine who was behind the most recent rocket attack from Syria, but multiple actors – the Syrian regime, Iranian proxies or Palestinian terrorist groups – could have an interest in changing the rules of the game.
Over 50 years after the Six-Day War, Russia and the United States are convening a joint security summit in Israel, while Arab states have come to terms with the fact that we cannot be defeated through war or even by a protracted terror campaign.
The sums being quoted about the cost of a new election are ludicrous. Of course, it is an unexpected expense but Israel will simply have to find the money to carry out the democratic process.
From an ideological perspective, Russian speaking Jews are Likud's natural constituency, but the party has thus far failed to provide them a viable political home. What can it do to turn the tide?
Hezbollah is trying to recover from its losses in Syria and Israel's exposure of its tunnels, but that doesn't mean the organization has forgotten its main goal – to strike a painful blow to Israel that will echo throughout the Middle East.
This embarrassing situation has nothing to do with immunity or the laws of the land. What caused and sustained this crisis was Lieberman's treachery on one hand, and Netanyahu's inability on the other to identify and neutralize it in time.
