Netanyahu Poised To Win Israeli Election

At least that's how it looks from some of the targeted polling and research by The Jerusalem Post. And since platforms regarding national security tend to ring a whole lot clearer over there than they do here, one can understand why:

"Jerusalem will not be divided and Gamla will not fall again," Likud chairman and prime ministerial candidate Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday during a tour of the Golan Heights.

Accompanied by Likud members Moshe Ya'alon, Yossi Peled, Bennie Begin and Efi Eitam, Netanyahu arrived in the North to participate in Tu Bishvat tree planting.

"If Kadima wins," he said, "we will not have the Golan Heights and will only continue ceding territory. Peace is made with the strong, not the weak. Israel with the Golan Heights is a strong state and not a weak state which gives away its assets."

And even the dullest of military tacticians or even an array of guys that infuse Tzun Tzu rhetoric into their paintball tournaments know that self preservation and safety for one's people will not include a real estate deal that cedes the hills that overlook the valleys. And Tuesday, the world will find out whether the Israeli population assents to the primary crux of the election--that the Kadima party will try to advance the cause of peace by handing over the Golan heights. And the world will see whether or not Israel has learned the lessons of Gaza.

But Israel, for all their vain, backslidden fog, still seems to understand that they are surrounded--literally--by nations that want to eliminate them. Thus a less-euphonious-but-no-less-audible reverberation of the need for the strong man to guard the house.

-R