How would you have voted, Israeli edition

[Bo]

1949-1965:Mapai/Alignment
1969: Labor
1973: Labor
1977-2009: Likud

[Bo]

I just noticed I forgot the special Israeli Prime Ministerial elections that they previously had. Here is my list for those

1996:Netanyahu
1999:Netanyahu
2001:Sharon

[Bo]

You have a -6 economic PM and would vote for Netanyahu the ultraliberal ?
And really you think that inforcing conflicts and colonization as the Likud preaches will solve Israel's problems ?
I fail to understand.

I have a lot of faith in Bibi.

Ah, faith...

First of all, Bibi is pretty liberal (in the American sense) on economics, much more so than almost all Republican and many Democratic politicians in the U.S. Secondly, even if Ben disagrees with Bibi on economics, he might still support him due to his tough stance on security. I know I would. I also know that this is the reason many Israelis voted for Likud--security is a huge issue there, much more than in the U.S. or in Europe.

[Bo]

Hamas

That's for Palestine, not for Israel. BTW, you know Karl Rove strongly hates Hamas?

[Bo]

You have a -6 economic PM and would vote for Netanyahu the ultraliberal ?
And really you think that inforcing conflicts and colonization as the Likud preaches will solve Israel's problems ?
I fail to understand.

I have a lot of faith in Bibi.

Ah, faith...

First of all, Bibi is pretty liberal (in the American sense) on economics, much more so than almost all Republican and many Democratic politicians in the U.S. Secondly, even if Ben disagrees with Bibi on economics, he might still support him due to his tough stance on security. I know I would. I also know that this is the reason many Israelis voted for Likud--security is a huge issue there, much more than in the U.S. or in Europe.

You can't use the GOP as a reference to compare with other right-wing parties in the world, its far-right stances make it a great exception among developped countries. And you really think that war is the good way to ensure security ? Likud and other Israeli warlike parties are actually one of the greatest threats to Israel's security.

I don't think war is a good way to ensure Israel's security, unless absolutely necessary. However, I do believe that using massive force to respond to terrorism all the time is a good way to ensure Israel's security. Israeli leaders between about 1990 and 2001 were unwilling to respond to terrorism, and thus terorrism there never stopped or even decreased (in fact, the casulaties from terorrism increased in Israel during this time). Since I lived there back then, I felt a lot of fear for my security. It is only when Sharon began to respond to terrorism in a way that he felt necessary in 2002-2003 that the casulaties from terrorism there began decreasing. In just several years, almost all suicide bombings in Israel have stopped. Also, after Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2008, almost all rocket attacks from both areas have stopped because Hezbollah and Hamas do not want Israel to have to repeat the damage that they did there. I'm all in favor of peace, but I believe that Israel should not have to compromise the security of its citizens in order to achieve peace, which unfortunately many Israeli leaders in the 1990s did not realize and thus many lives of Israeli civilians were unnecessarily and tragically lost.