A mistaken post: Netanyahu facing tight tope

Mehdi Shakibayi: Ten years after his defeat to Ehud Barak (current labor party head) in polls, Benjamin Netanyahu entitled Bibi Netanyahu and head of the rightist Likud party took post of premiership once more. However, many analysts believe that he could not run the Israeli political domain as before.

The makeup of the new Israeli government shows that the premier has taken a domestically-based policy and tries to tend to its public opinion demands. These demands have proved to run counter to the Middle East peace process. It also runs against the programs and initiatives of the new American government regarding Middle East. A confrontation then looms.

The premier however faces a tight rope as the domestic Israeli opinion considers a special importance for Washington ties. Netanyahu once was bit by the sting of tense relations with Washington. In 1999, his ties with Bill Clinton were marred. The incident led to his ouster from office by the angry public opinion which highly valued US ties.

The premier then would try to avoid any tension in his US ties. This may cause some contradiction as Netanyahu has come to power upon the tide of some slogans which run counter to US plans for Middle East.

Perhaps he has come to power in a wrong time.