Israelis are still voting but the current buzz is that the race tightened up over the weekend, since the last polls were published. It’s hard to tell whether or not talk of Tzipi Livni and Kadima’s gains on Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud is wishful thinking on the part of a press corps that ardently desires Bibi’s defeat.

Unless things have radically changed in the last few days the parties of the right will probably find it easier to form a new governing coalition than those of the left. That will mean that the person who is most likely to lead the next Israeli government is Netanyahu. But anyone expecting Bibi to get some kind of honeymoon from the media is dreaming. Even before he takes office he will be falsely accused of killing the peace process in the 1990s. Rather than face up to the reality that there’s no viable Palestinian peace partner, the press will call the absence of peace Netanyahu’s fault.

But some people just couldn’t wait for the voters to speak to start the Bibi-bashing. Britain’s Independent weighed in on Friday with “The nightmare of Netanyahu returns.”

Here in the United States, the Los Angeles Times editorial page anticipated the election results on the day of the voting with less hysteria in a piece decrying the mood in Israel, in which “the front-runners in today’s elections have emphasized security over peacemaking.”

Why would they do that? Yes, the Times admits, Hamas is not nice and Fatah is weak, “leaving Israelis feeling that they have no peace partner.” Of course they “feel” that way because that’s the reality, not a misunderstanding of Palestinian society. Even worse, the paper denounces Israel’s “walls, fences and checkpoints” which have lessened the chances for peace. That reading ignores the fact that the only reason those barriers exist is to protect Israeli civilians from a barbarous Palestinian terrorist offensive. Apparently from the Times’s point of view it would be better for Israelis to still face the danger of being blown up in buses, restaurants, and malls than to “know no one from the other side.”

The editorial concludes by claiming that Israel “needs a leader who will help restore the country’s faith in peacemaking” via territorial withdrawals — a clear swipe at Netanyahu. But the only force that can restore Israel’s faith in such policies would be a leader or party on the Palestinian side that actually believed in peace. Since that doesn’t currently exist it is still easier to blame Israel’s leaders and its voters. If Bibi manages to win tonight get ready for a lot more of this theme in the days, weeks, and months ahead.