By Stan Goodenough
Nov 20, 2008
If Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu wins the February 10, 2009 general election to become Israel's next prime minister, he will lead the Jewish state into a confrontation with the whole world.
This scare-mongering charge was leveled by panicky-sounding Labor Party leader Ehud Barak Thursday amid new poll findings that put Netanyahu's Likud Party a good deal ahead of its closest rival, Kadima, and far, far ahead of Labor in the gradually-accelerating election race.
According to a Ynetnews report headlined: 'Likud growing in strength, Labor collapsing,' if elections were held today, Netanyahu's center-right party would snap up 32 Knesset seats over Kadima's 26. Labor would get just eight.
Likud's steady pull ahead is being attributed largely to the choice of individuals Netanyahu has been recruiting into his party.
They include former Knesset members Benny Begin and Dan Meridor, former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ayalon, and former Police Commissioner Assaf Hefetz.
Speaking after the poll results were published, Barak slammed the Likud, saying, "The Likud and Netanyahu will lead to a diplomatic dead end, the Likud and Netanyahu will lead us to a confrontation with the whole world."
Pundits in Israel have been speculating wildly since the election win to the US presidency of Barack Hussein Obama.
Obama - an extreme liberal riding a tsunami of popular opinion, and backed by a Democratically-controlled Capitol Hill, is gearing up to drive Israel into a "peace" trap that will see the Jewish people lose their historic lands to a Muslim State of Palestine.
A Kadima-led Israel will be more prone to surfing along on the pressure wave from Washington.
On the other hand, Netanyahu and his Likud - with men of strong convictions and unsullied reputations like Begin and Ya'alon topping the Knesset list - are likely to apply the brakes and prevent their small nation from being bulldozed into a suicidal pact with the antisemitic and genocidal Arab-Islamic world.