Israeli Netizens Celebrate Romney’s Defeat · Global Voices
Elizabeth Tsurkov

Israeli netizens closely followed the elections in the United States, many of them staying up until the early morning hours to find out who of the candidates crossed the 270 electoral vote threshold. The Israeli social media and blogosphere scene is dominated by people who lean to the Left and thus most hoped that Obama would be re-elected. Liberal Israelis are generally disappointed with Obama's inaction regarding the peace process and human rights violations inside Israel, but Romney is seen as the worst of the two options. Netanyahu's implicit endorsement of Romney, as well as Romney's conservative positions on women's rights, gay rights and social equality made him quite unpopular among Israeli netizens.
Israeli netizens reacted to Obama's victory mostly in the context of Israeli politics – as a blow to Netanyahu, and Netanyahu and Romney's generous financier, billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who also owns the pro-Netanyahu free daily Israel Hayom.
Leftist blogger Kurt Tucholski posted on Facebook [heb]:
הרשו לי לנבא את הכותרת של ישראל היום מחר: במירוץ לנשיאות ארצות הברית הגיע רומני למקום השני, אובמה הגיע למקום הלפני אחרון!
Let me predict tomorrow's headline in Israel Hayom: In the race to the presidency of the United States, Romney came in second while Obama came in one place before last!
While this humorous prediction did not come true, the daily did publish an op-ed titled “The United States Chose Socialism” following Obama's victory.
Asafsky Levy posted this image of Adelson on Facebook:
Feminist blogger H. B. Hoffman described the general atmosphere among Israelis on Twitter:
הפיד שטוף בשמחה לאיד וקריאות לאובמה להיכנס בנתניהו בכל הכוח, ואני רוצה להגיד שזה ממש לא יפה, שלא חיכיתם לי כדי שאוכל להצטרף. אובמה, כנס בו
@vandersister: My feed is full of schadenfreude and calls for Obama to slam Netanyahu hard. And I want to say this is really not nice. It's not nice that you didn't wait for me so I could join. Come on, Obama, slam him.
Journalist and musician Yuval Ben Ami posted on Facebook:
לשלדון אדלסון נשפכו מאה מליון דולר לג'ורה. רק העובדה שזה גרושים בשבילו פוגמת לי בעונג השמחה לאיד.
Sheldon Adelson just had $100 million poured down the drain. Only the fact that it's loose change for him ruins my Schadenfreude.
Ouriel Daskal tweeted about Netanyahu's gamble of supporting Romney:
איך ששלדון אדלסון, שעוסק בהימורים למחייה, וביבי, שעוסק כל היום בהימורים על החיים שלנו, נכשלו כל כך בגדול בהימור שלהם?
@odaskal: How come Sheldon Adelson, who deals with gambling for a living [he made his fortune by constructing casinos] and Bibi [Netanyahu], who constantly gambles with our lives, have failed so terribly with their bet?
Israeli netizens gloated about what they see as Netanyahu's loss:
Eyal Brave created this image that was widely shared on Facebook:
“Benjamin, what's up? Say, you remember how you interfered and tried to influence the presidential elections here in the States?”
Netanyahu: “Yes. Why?”
Obama: “No reason”
Israeli Leftist activist John Brown posted this image:
Commenting on Netanyahu's wrong bet on Romney, Israeli meme artist Amir Schiby created this image:
Netanyahu: “Put all my money on Romney”. “You know what? Put my underwear and Israel too”
Obama next to a house with the signs: “foreclosed” and “for sale”: “Aren't you forgetting something?”
Voicing the hope of some Israelis that the upcoming Israeli elections will result in Netanyahu's loss, Shachar B. Cotani created this widely shared image: