Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves to supporters at the party headquarters in Tel Aviv, March 18.

Last week, all opinion polls foretold that the centrist Zionist Union would grab the most seats in the Israeli elections. But the right wing Likud Party and its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, scored a dramatic comeback and emerged victorious on Tuesday night, securing a five-seat lead over his closest opponents. 

Netanyahu, who received a congratulatory phone call from Secretary of State John Kerry, is expected to remain prime minister after forming a coalition with other right-leaning parties. 

His victory is indicative of Israel’s racism and lack of interest in peace.

The elections brought Israel’s true nature to the front pages. Israelis expressed fanatic, unapologetic bigotry without euphemism. Last week, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called for beheading Arabs citizens who are disloyal to Israel.

After speaking before Congress and insulting President Obama, Netanyahu dropped all masks and showed his true face as a bigoted maniac. He promised voters that he would make sure that a Palestinian state would never become a reality if he is reelected prime minister. On the day of the elections he complained about the large turnout of Arab-Israeli voters. 

“Right-wing rule is in danger,” he said. “Arab voters are streaming in huge quantities to the polling stations.”

And his tactics worked. The racism in Israel is deeply rooted in society; it is not only a state policy. 

However, what we find bewildering is the silence of American politicians who demand racial justice at home but embrace and sponsor Israeli racism against Palestinians. 

The Israeli prime minister is known for making analogies between Israel and the United States to urge the American public to relate to Israel. To use Netanyahu’s own method, let us put his comments in an American perspective. If an American candidate said that his political party is endangered because African Americans or Latinos or Arabs are voting in large numbers, it would be the end of his political career. 

The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and siege on Gaza is often justified by the fact that some Palestinian factions do not recognize Israel’s right to exist. Here we have an Israeli prime minister who won reelection on the promise to keep denying Palestine’s right to exist. The Israeli government is expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank by the minute. These colonies are chewing up the land that would be the Palestinian state. While Hamas questions Israel’s legitimacy, Netanyahu is actively preventing Palestine from existing at all.

The Israeli election was also a strong reminder of the injustice of the occupation in the West Bank. Jewish settlers living on the land that the entire world— including the United States— recognizes as Palestinian territories were able to vote in the elections. However, their Palestinian neighbors who are living under the occupation do not get to vote. When two sets of people live in the same land but only one group enjoys political rights and resources, it is an unquestionable apartheid regime. 

The U.S. policy in the Middle East has been supportive of a two-state solution since President Truman. But our government’s actions have been contrary to its rhetoric. The United States has supported Israel’s plans of expansion and blocked international efforts to condemn the Hebrew state. 

But now that the newly-reelected prime minister openly opposes the two-state solution and has little regard for the American president, we hope that our leaders in Washington can wake up from the coma of politics and rethink their unconditional support of Israel.