Palestinians Smiling, If Unsure About Israeli Election Results
Daoud Kuttab assesses the mixed reactions of Palestinians to the Israeli elections.
The ambiguous results of the Israeli elections have left Palestinians with an attitude best embodied by the novel of the late Palestinian novelist Emile Habibi, a pessoptimist. Palestinians were dumbfounded by the unanticipated and unclear results, which have left them torn between feelings of optimism and pessimism.
There were plenty of reasons to be pessimistic, which is why expectations were low that the results would actually effect any sort of real change.
Palestinians were generally pessimistic about the elections results because those who opposed the Benjamin Netanyahu government did so based on economic or social issues rather than his hawkish positions on the peace process. None of the major parties participating in the elections presented what seemed to be a clear alternative to the current government’s position regarding the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Palestinians were further worried by the appearance of a right-wing, even radical settler tilt in the polls leading up to the elections. The merger of the Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu parties as well as expectations for high voter turnout by the new radical settler party led by Naftali Bennett added to Palestinian pessimism.
