Israel's Conservative Obama

"Israeli Candidate Borrows a (Web) Page from Obama"
A5, Saturday 11/15/08
By Ethan Bronner and Noam Cohen

The article describes how the campaign of Benjamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu, the center-right leader of Likud running for Israeli Prime Minister, has borrowed many marketing techniques from the Obama campaign. This is most evident on Netanyahu's web site, which is strikingly similar to Obama's and contains many of the same features. Netanyahu's campaign has even adopted similar hopeful sloganizing, employing the motto "Together we can succeed" rather than "Yes we can."

Much of the article is devoted to the authors' incredulity that Netanyahu could (even dare) position himself as the candidate of change akin to the more progressive Obama given his more conservative politics. The authors characterize Bibi as the "most hawkish and the least interested in the focus on dialogue with adversaries" out of the the main candidates for the Prime Ministership. To the NYT, it appears that a hawk is someone that will not recklessly throw themselves into negotiations with a Palestinian Authority (PA) that is doing practically nothing to prepare its population for a peaceful solution based on the Two-State model.

As the article continues, however, it appears that Netanyahu may actually have some proposals for actual change, albeit in a manner which the NYT opposes. For example, in recognition that the PA leadership is doing little to foster peace, Netanyahu has proposed focusing on building the Palestinian economy and building peace from the bottom up.

It is unfortunate that the NYT cannot concede anything to Netanyahu, further demonstrating how the Times naively and whole heartedly believes the PA to be a good faith partner. Through this lens, the NYT can only conclude that Netanyahu is cynically exploiting Obama's campaigning techniques, rather than potentially seeing a new means of pursuing peace that could effect real "change."

With Bibi Netanyhu though, it is always worth being skeptical.