April 12, 2019

Earlier this week, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was re-elected to his fifth term in office. Netanyahu was able to hold onto power, despite fighting corruption charges, by mobilizing Israel’s right-wing flank to defeat the significant opposition posed by the center-left parties, who threw their support behind Benny Gantz in an effort to oust Netanyahu. In the past two years, this same right-wing constituency enacted a policy defining Israel as a “Jewish” nation-state and is now considering a policy to annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Effectively, Netanyahu’s reelection is another nail in the coffin of a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine, as well as a vote for the same Israeli state policies which have undermined the possibility of peace in the region. By supporting this ever-moving hardline right trend in Israeli politics, the United States would be further proving their inability to serve as a responsible broker of peace between Israelis and Palestinians.