New Poll Illustrates It's Not Netanyahu Who Is Right Wing -- It's Israel (Thank Goodness!)

Polls are convenient fodder for proving a point -- who can forget Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's famous poll proving that Palestinian Arabs just wanted peace:

Well, you can look at any opinion poll in the Palestinian territories and 70 percent of the people will say they’re perfectly ready to live side by side with Israel because they just want to live in peace.

Too bad that no one -- Rice included -- was ever able to produce that poll.

On the other hand, an actual poll that came out this month is useful for illustrating a very different point.

How Will The Media Handle An Israeli Government That Actually Is Right Wing?

It’s rather ironic: the international community is bitterly ramping up its criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu the builder of settlements — Security Council condemnations, European castigations, American criticisms, et al. But Benjamin Netanyahu the non-builder of settlements is hemorrhaging support to the party on his right.
David Horowitz, Netanyahu battered by the Jewish Home-builder, The Times of Israel, 12/20/12

The upcoming Israeli elections next month are likely to not only give Netanayahu a larger coalition, but a more right-wing one as well. Jonathan Tobin writes about this rightward shift and Why Israel Has Shifted to the Right:

This will give residents and supporters of the settlement movement an even louder voice in the next Knesset than their already healthy contingent in the current one. This will be interpreted by some on the left as a sign of Israel’s depravity or indifference to peace. But the reason for it is clear.

Why Is Hamas The Cuddly Moderate And Netanyahu The Extremist

Ever notice that we are constantly being told that Hamas is moderating?

From the time that Hamas won the election back in 2006 (a year before the bloody coup where Hamas kicked out Fatah), we have been lectured on how Hamas would moderate, is moderating, wants to moderate, is split over moderating...

If Netanyahu Is Really Such A Right Winger Extremist...

The following is from an email describing a meeting with some friends who

immediately came out swinging that Bibi is a Right Winger and Lieberman pushes him even more right, blah, blah, blah.