Meanwhile, In Israel The Election May Be Netanyahu's To Lose

That is David Hazony's take, based in part on 3 things that are going Netanyahu's way:

First, Likud has added to its ranks a series of impressive candidates with a reputation of integrity–Benjamin Begin, Dan Meridor, Moshe Yaalon, and others–setting the Likud off as a contrast against the corruption-tainted Kadima party currently in power.

Second, the global financial crisis has cause many Israelis to refocus their thoughts on the economy, and no party leader has Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu’s reputation for economic decisionmaking.

Finally, the election of Barack Obama may well be triggering a kind of hawkish backlash among Israelis. Fearing that the new administration will pressure Israel to make concessions, Israelis might increasingly see in Netanyahu the necessary bulwark against international pressure.

On the other hand, it may not be Obama that Israelis need to worry about. Just as Condoleezza Rice was the driving force behind Israeli concessions rather than Bush himself, it may very well be Obama's Secretary of State whom Israel should be concerned about--and that appears to be Hillary Clinton.

Jennifer Rubin notes:

Jeffrey Goldberg is counting on Hillary Clinton to pull off a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal. Conservatives are banking on her being smart enough to realize there is no deal remotely possible right now. We’ll find out who’s right soon enough.

Lisa Schiffren for instance, seems to tend towards the latter view:

In the Middle East, for instance, whatever sympathies she had, years ago, for Arafat and his pals, must have evolved as she watched the Palestinians devolve into terror factions in Gaza and the West Bank. She knows what they did to her husband's hopes of brokering that chimera of a "peace agreement."

The only matchup more intriguing than Netanyahu vs. Obama may very well be Netanyahu vs. Clinton.

But it's still a long way to February.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Netanyahu.