The election of a new Prime Minister in March will not change Israel’s stance on major foreign policy issues, according to an analysis written for The New York Times by Jonathan Schanzer, the vice president of research for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, yesterday.

The top priority is — and will be for the foreseeable future — preventing Iran from becoming a threshold nuclear weapon’s power. To achieve this, Israel will also need to continue to sound the alarm about the potential for an ill-advised deal between Iran and the so-called P5-plus-1 countries (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany). This has been a source of tension between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama. …

Nor is it likely that the elections will change the prospects for Palestinian-Israeli peace. The Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas appears to have decided to pursue the case for Palestinian statehood in international forums rather than through negotiations with Israel. Abbas’ support for the recent outbreak of violence in Jerusalem has also prompted much of the Israeli political spectrum to sour on further talks with him.

Schanzer concludes his argument by noting, “Even if Netanyahu is unseated (which is extremely unlikely) it will soon become clear that Israel’s fight for survival looks roughly the same under any leadership. It’s a tough neighborhood.”

[Photo: Israel_photo_gallery / Flickr ]