Hamas Alters Israeli Politics, Hawks Losing Ground

Tel Aviv -- While war between Israel and Hamas reverberates from Gaza City to southern Israel and to Arab capitals, the fallout will also be felt within the Israeli Knesset.

The fighting is already affecting Israeli public opinion ahead of the Feb. 10 parliamentary vote: Before the offensive began polls showed conservative opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party leading. But now, the hawks are losing ground and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, leader of the center-left Labor Party, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of centrist Kadima are gaining.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[cobobs]

Is the key to victory in Israeli elections killing a lot of neighbors and blowing up their stuff? If that is so, the label "hawks" is meaningless. If the real motivation of this incursion is electoral victory, then we are talking about some serious cynicism, sick cynicism. Not saying the Palestinians are saints either. These guys in that area cannot really help themselves.

[pimpdown]

What a stupid title. If Kadima launches a campaign of collective punishment then they are the new hawks.

[Lahonda]

A dumb rocket is indifferent and it delivers hatred and destruction without discrimination. The injustice here is that this is seen as a religious war when it is a war over land and ideologies mixed with history of these two great civilizations.

We can barely fathom the bottom of this cycle, let alone the significance of this conflict in the near term.

[PhilipTaylor]

MAY THE HAWKS L0SE BIG!

A new age is beginning and the Hawks are the PAST!

New thinking that puts the past behind and opens an ERA of clear thinking cooperation is Beginning!

The HAWK1SH philosophy has FA1LED for 6O years and IS must become a GOOD WORLD CITIZEN to surv1ve in the new ERA! Learning to look beyond its own narrow interests is a Major Part of this!

[PhilipTaylor]

MAY THE HAWKS LOSE BIG!

A new age is beginning and the Hawks are the PAST!

New thinking that puts the past behind and opens an ERA of clear thinking cooperation is Beginning!

The HAWKISH philosophy has FAILED for 60 years and IS must become a GOOD WORLD CITIZEN to survive in the new ERA!

Learning to look beyond ones own narrow SELF interests is a Major Part of this!

[gamoonbat]

The centrists are gaining ground by moving to the right and becoming hawks?

[postboy]

glad she is prob. goin to win

[johnsonc20]

"Hawks losing ground" in Israel? That headline is grim irony. "Hawks consolidate power" would have been more appropriate. As usual, the machinery of politics in Israel is greased by Arab blood.

[realist333]

Not so, johnsonc20. The "grim irony" is that the Gaza Strip is still in the grip of Hamas. Hamas offers Palestinians no hope of peace, much less prosperity. The founding philosophy of Hamas is death and destruction - and of course the improbable aim of eventually destroying Israel.

Al Fatah once shared that goal but has since come to its senses. Fatah wants peace. It is Hamas that refuses to halt the conflict by agreeing to a truce.