O Israel
If the present exit polls are correct, Likud will be replaced as the largest right-wing opposition party by Yisrael Beitenu... a somewhat crazier party dominated by people born, like me, in Soviet Russia. Obviously, Ariel Sharon's creation last year of the Kadima Party as a center-right party took away much of the reason behind Likud's existence, but still, I'm surprised. (Of course, I say that as a Gentile outsider who views Israeli politics as cacophonous and bellicose absurdity.) If I had to explain Likud's pathetic performance in one word it would be Bibi. Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu was prime minister in the late '90s, succeeding Shimon Peres who had taken over for the assassinated Itzhak Rabin, may he rest in peace. Bibi's a loon, and Likud was crazy to contest a general election with him as their standard-bearer.

Let us hope that Ehud Olmert is worthy of the faith Ariel Sharon, a complicated man who is both rightly loved and rightly detested, had in him.