Didn’t take too long, did it?
Within hours of the publication of Israel’s election results, the first truly shocking media headline arrived, courtesy of the Huffington Post.
A fairly typical report about the election result was plastered all over the top and center of the Huffington Post’s homepage, advertised thus:
This is the front page of the @HuffPo. "Israel votes extreme", screams the hysterical headline.
No, it did not. With Likud and Blue and White winning the bulk of the votes, a clear majority of Israelis actually voted for center-left to center-right. pic.twitter.com/jXdxbDMI1v
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) April 10, 2019
The majority of voters did not vote for extreme parties, and controversial figures such as Moshe Feiglin, Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett find themselves in the political wilderness.
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Beyond all that, it’s important to note that while the parties have been voted in, a coalition hasn’t yet been formed. The next government of Israel is very much a work in progress, and dependent on negotiations. Three main permutations are possible:
1. A narrow right-wing government led by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud together with other parties from the right and center.
2. A broader coalition government, also led by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, this time together with the center-left Blue and White party, or elements of the latter party.
3. A final, unlikely, possibility arises if a recount helps the New Right party to cross the electoral threshold. In this circumstance, the Likud could invite the New Right to bolster its right-wing coalition. The end result would be a coalition very similar to Israel’s last government.
Not one of these coalitions, even the most stridently right-wing, could fairly be described as any more extreme than Israel’s previous governments.
And all this is before considering that it’s not absolutely 100% certain which party will lead the coalition. Although Likud clearly is best positioned, there remains an outside chance that Blue and White could take the reins. It’s also worth noting that the possibility of a coalition of the two main parties would then leave some of the more right-wing or orthodox religious parties on the outside, thereby actually creating a more moderate government than the last one.
In the eyes of the Huffington Post editors, however, all of this seemed to be of secondary importance compared to the opportunity of running a hsyterical, fear-mongering, shameful headline.
