Jackson Diehl, usually an astute commentator on Israeli affairs, makes a grave mistake in his article about the next Israeli government. For the first time in many years, he says, Israel might vote “for war.” His proof? A quote from Likud’s leader Binyamin Netanyahu:

We must smash the Hamas power in Gaza,” Likud party leader Binyamin (“Bibi”) Netanyahu said at one rally last week. “There will be no escape from toppling the Hamas regime,” he said at a security conference the next day. “I’m sorry to say we haven’t gotten the job done,” he said of Israel’s recent Gaza offensive in a radio interview. “The next government will have no choice but to finish the job and uproot . . . the Iranian terror base.

But Diehl fails to differentiate between wars. He compares Netanyahu to Kadima’s Tzipi Livni, “who is promising to continue peace talks.” The comparison doesn’t stand up to scrutiny: Netanyahu talks about war with Hamas — Livni talks about peace with Palestinian moderates from the Palestinian Authority — namely Fatah. He also treats Netanyahu as the only Israeli leader wanting to topple Hamas. Wrong again: Livni was as vehement in demanding the removal of Hamas as Netanyahu. This is no secret; Livni has said so publicly:

The state of Israel, and a government under me, will make it a strategic objective to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza,” Livni told members of her centrist Kadima party. “The means for doing this should be military, economic and diplomatic.

Diehl’s rhetoric is aimed at portraying Netanyahu, who may win tomorrow, as a warmonger. Many pundits tend to represent Netanyahu’s views as more right-wing and extreme than those of his rivals. But while there are certain political differences between Netanyahu and Livni, and while one can persuasively argue — as Diehl does — that Netanyahu never believed in “the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state,” these two (or three, including Ehud Barak) share many common Israeli beliefs regarding the Palestinian problem.

To illustrate the point, note that the largest group of “undecided voters” from last week was torn between Livni and Netanyahu. That’s not because these voters are not sure what they want, but rather because as far as policy goes, they can hardly see the difference between the two candidates. The choice is not between contrasting ideologies and beliefs on war and peace — it’s rather between personalities. Another point to consider is that Barak wants to be Netanyahu’s Defense Minister. Apparently, the leader of the “left-wing” Labor Party believes he can live with Netanyahu’s views. That’s because on many of the issues they share the same views.