Shifting

clipped from www.davidwarrenonline.com From this distance, it appears the old Israeli notion -- that peace happens only while her neighbours are afraid to attack -- has revived. It is a notion that corresponds well to the country's hard experience since independence. Strong and immediate retaliation for any breach of the peace is necessary: "You do this, we do that." It goes without saying, this is not the way to court the affection of liberals throughout the West, but Israel has nothing to lose on that front, for she has never been rewarded for heroic restraint. Mr. Netanyahu's likely victory in the upcoming election will be explained, correctly for a change, by Israel's "shift to the right," after a decade of setbacks. Not only Netanyahu's Likud, but all parties have shifted, in the same direction. Netanyahu simply represents the most plausible way to hang tough, given an Obama administration that will itself be merely responding to events.