It’s Netanyahu as Israel’s next PM

To no one’s surprise, Shimon Peres tasked Benjamin Netanyahu with the job of forming a government.

President Shimon Peres announced Friday he has decided to task Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu with forming the next government.

“Most of the factions have expressed their desire to see a broad government being established, and I asked Mr. Netanyahu that this wish will be reflected in the makeup of the government,” Peres said at a press conference in his official residence.

The next few weeks will be full of articles in the “objective” media about how “hard-line” and “hawkish” Netanyahu and his government are. Expect also to read about how Netanyahu fills his government with “racists” and doesn’t really want peace with the Palestinians, or a Palestinian state. George Mitchell, Obama’s special negotiator (who has already failed regarding Israel) has made it clear already that he doesn’t believe that Netanyahu’s suggestion of first bringing economic stability will replace the precious “final-status” negotiations that Abbas and his supporters want to leap to without having the Palestinians actually, say, hold up their end of the deals from the past. Stopping incitement, for instance. Replacing “Palestine” in textbooks with Israel, perhaps.

So, let’s sample a few leads to see what the mainstream media think of Bibi:

The AP:

Israeli President Shimon Peres chose hard-line Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday to form a new Israeli government, giving Netanyahu six weeks to cobble together a coalition.

Reuters:

Right-wing leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday accepted a mandate to form Israel’s next government and immediately called for a broad, national unity coalition with centrist and left-wing partners.

There is no indication they are ready to accept, however.

Netanyahu, 59, leads the hawkish Likud party. He was prime minister in the 1990s and now has six weeks to put together a parliamentary majority for a second turn at the helm.

The question now is whether Netanyahu will form a narrow government with his hard-line allies or a broad government along with his centrist rival, Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni. His choice will have serious ramifications for the Mideast peace process.

The Times of London:

Israel was today poised for its most right-wing government in decades after Binyamin Netanyahu was asked to be the country’s next Prime Minister.

In a move that will cause huge disappointment in Washington, President Shimon Peres confirmed that he had asked the Likud leader, who finished a close second in the country’s election, to build a coalition.

Bloomberg:

Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu has been chosen by President Shimon Peres to form a government and become Israel’s next prime minister.

Peres announced his decision today at his official Jerusalem residence in a news conference with Netanyahu. The president said Netanyahu had the support of a majority of political parties in the Israeli parliament.

More examples later. But for now, watch for the stealth insults like these from the Times:

It is widely felt that a government with Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Lieberman in charge would be narrowly based and unstable and would find little favor in Washington, leading to another election before long.

[…] After Likud’s defeat in the 1993 election, he seized the party leadership and was prime minister from 1996 to 1999. When he lost the elections in 1999, he resigned his seat in Parliament and his leadership of Likud. He returned to the leadership to suffer a humiliating defeat in elections in 2006.

I predict a very quick case of Netanyahu Derangement Syndrome (which should be Bibi Derangement Syndrome, but we’ve already had eight years of BDS and that would get confusing).