Election result spells the end of Israeli-Palestinian peace process

THAT THE RIGHT WING led by the Likud party won the Israeli parliamentary elections with a comfortable majority means there is little hope of breaking the deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Ma Xiaolin, a researcher in international politics with the Beijing Foreign Studies University, comments in an article for Beijing Youth Daily:

The coalition government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu opposes the removal of Jewish settlements on land that Palestinians envision for a future state. And its victory shows that even the mild proposals of the Blue and White party, the second largest political alliance in Israel, which supports the coexistence of "two states", have lost public support since the negotiations have stalled. Thus, neither the ruling party nor the opposition party can bring new hopes to the peace process.

That the Blue and White obtained 35 seats in the parliament election, only one seat less than the Likud, indicates that the influence of Netanyahu and Likud has declined, and some voters hoped to see a change of prime minister. But the overall result shows that most Israelis want to maintain the status quo, supporting the forming of a coalition government so that Netanyahu and Likud can still steer the future of the country.