With 94 out of the Knesset's 120 members behind him, the prime minister might have enough political support to launch war with Iran despite the opposition within the security establishment. This was the shortest election cycle in history: On Sunday, Likud brought to a Knesset vote a bill moving elections up to September 4, officially launching a four-month campaign season. Less then 48 hours later, the elections were cancelled. Kadima, it was announced, will join Netanyahu's coalition, and Israelis will only go to the polls a year and a half from now, in October 2013. Since the legislation of the…

Ben Caspit, diplomatic correspondent for the Israeli daily Maariv, reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to call early elections in Israel was the result of the assessment by leaders of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby in Washington, that President Barack Obama would be reelected in 2012. Netanyahu's coalition surprised the political system last week when it was made public that the the next elections would take place only four months from now, on September 4 (elections periods in Israel are usually much longer). By early November, when the U.S. elections take place, the new Israeli government will already be sworn in. Caspit…

Election season has begun, and the Israeli public desperately wants one thing: escapism.  Last night, after the Israeli election was set for September 4, I saw a guy wearing a T-shirt that I thought summed up the public mood, which the main "opposition" candidates have been and will be catering to. The T-shirt showed a comically wide-eyed, frightened John Cleese and his classic line from Fawlty Towers: "Don't mention the war!" Perfect. The prime minister has the whole world scared to death that he's going to bomb Iran, every poll shows that a great majority of Israelis don't want him to do it - but it's not an issue in Israeli politics and it almost certainly won't…