World Decides Once Again Not To End Despite Netanyahu Forming Government

The planet and most of its inhabitants and social phenomena appeared unmoved by the frequent resort to such locutions as “hardline,” “far-right,” “nationalist,” “warmonger,” and “war criminal.”

Jerusalem, January 2 – Dire predictions notwithstanding, the Earth continued this week to orbit on its axis and revolve around the sun; an asteroid did not strike Earth, and none appears to pose any danger of such in the foreseeable future; and civilization persisted its evolution through a period that has seen fewer wars and people dying in wars than at any time in history – all despite the apocalyptic event, as pundits warned, of six-time-elect Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel assuming office once again.

Commentators and politicians around the world fell into a familiar pattern in early November of likening the prospect of Mr. Netanyahu securing the premiership to a disaster of epic proportions, behavior that characterized the same developments in 1996, 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2017. In each case, observers note, the world refused to cooperate with the widespread predictions of chaos and war. The planet and most of its inhabitants and social phenomena appeared unmoved by the frequent resort to such locutions as “hardline,” “far-right,” “nationalist,” “warmonger,” and “war criminal,” among others, and that appearance occurred once again when Netanyahu informed President Isaac Herzog that he had managed to reach agreement with parties representing at least 61 of the 120 seats in the Knesset to join a coalition with him at the helm.

The failure of the apocalypse to materialize each time forced its predictors to insist the next time around that this time the danger was ever-more-present, they mean it. In 2022, Netanyahu’s reliance on prospective coalition partners with stated opposition to LGBT people and with racist reputations poses a threat greater than in previous elections – but, observers also note, the rhetoric already in use against Netanyahu had invoked the most extreme scenarios with vehemence and frequency, and both voters and the planet, evidence indicates, no longer put stock in the nightmarish predictions that did not materialize the previous five times.

Experts suggested the world has better things to do than follow the fevered imaginations of wishcasting blowhards. “I hesitate to disagree with people such as Tom Friedman and the crew over at MSNBC, who have never never been wrong about anything, least of all the Middle East,” offered analyst Kee Tzoaa. “But it’s possible that the effect of repeated Netanyahu governments has been exaggerated in the minds of certain commentators in a way that does not reflect the real-world outcomes. It might further be possible that those commentators actually prefer the world to end, rather than witness Israel prosper and integrate with its neighbors.”

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