"A stunning victory."

[Ike Bana]

As far as I've been able to determine there has not been a peep outta the usual suspects around here about the recent elections in Israel. Reckon what that's all about?

(CNN)Israel's ruling Likud Party pulled off a victory in Tuesday's election -- and it was a stunning one. During the campaign, incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had come in for heavy criticism from across the political spectrum, for reasons ranging from concerns over his frosty relationship with the White House, to his fixation on the Iran nuclear issue, to allegations over Netanyahu's household expenses. Yet despite this unpromising backdrop, Likud is on course to win 30 seats in the Knesset.

Why? Because they know that, American aid notwithstanding, they're in this on their own. Nobody's gonna send any flesh and blood to fight by their side. Kuwait...yep. Afghanistan...sure. Iraq...of course. Israel...fuck no. Not much of anybody outside of the international community of Jews gives a shit in Yasser Arafat's hat if Israel were over-run tomorrow by a million sacrificial Iranians in one of their insane suicide charges. And it's pretty goddamn stupid as Israel is the only democracy for thousands of miles in the region...and the only country where we won't be seeing some sick Islamic religious fanatic funding suicide squads to sneak over here and blow a few more thousand of us to shreds.

So it appears that Israelis have decided that the rest of their world can take their Zionism=racism and their disapproval of Benjamin Netanyahu and stuff it. Well done.