La Salle Professor: Netanyahu Victory Is 'Very Much A Dewey Defeats Truman Kind Of Moment'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Edward Turzanski, a John Templeton fellow, co-chair of the Center for Study of Terrorism at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and scholar in residence at La Salle University spoke with Talk Radio 1210 WPHT midday host Dom Giordano about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reelection victory, saying that it was shocking how much of a landslide it was.
"This is very much a Dewey defeats Truman kind of moment because most of the western media, especially the ones waving pom-poms for the other side today wind up stunned. This was a very conclusive win given the kind of politics the Israelis have. It's hard for people on our side to wrap their head around how these complex Parliamentary systems work. Likud winds up with no more than a quarter of the vote yet they had a resounding win."
Listen To Podcast With Edward Turzanski:
Turzanski explains that due to his most recent election only being 26 months ago on a five year term, support was not completely there when Netanyahu pushed up the election.
"People at first thought that Netanyahu was crazy...He wanted to strengthen his majority so that he can have greater freedom of action. This was really an illustration of life being a risk reward proposition. If you risk greatly the chance is that you will be rewarded and he did a number of things that were courageous politically...It really was a very strong victory."
While according to Turzanski. detractors in the United States and abroad did what they could to "meddle" in the election with the hopes of a Netanyahu loss, they did not get their moneys worth.
"The (Obama) administration does not have clean hands on this and I have to think they're very angry this morning. They're very embarrassed because they spent quite a bit and sent some of their top guns to take out Netanyahu and it didn't work. In fact, he's come out of this stronger than when he went into it."