Western governments gave a muted reaction today to the re-election of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid fears that his increasingly hardline stance has fatally undermined the Middle East peace process.
The EU congratulated Netanyahu on his victory, but said it was committed to relaunching the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians that he rejected in the last days of the campaign.
British Prime Minister David Cameron took a similar stand, tweeting his congratulations but letting his spokesman emphasise that "he wants to see peace, wants to see a two-state solution".
Netanyahu's last-ditch lurch to the right -- vowing that the Palestinian state would never be recognised on his watch -- may have helped him clinch victory but sets up an awkward diplomatic scenario, analysts said.
"A major part of the peace process with the Palestinians has been to maintain the pretence, the make-believe idea, that it will eventually lead to a two-state solution," said Daniel Levy, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
"They were already skating on thin ice and now Netanyahu has taken a pick-axe to it."
With Netanyahu promising to abandon any semblance of a two-state solution, pressure may now increase on the West to force through a peace process.
"Either the United States and Europe get involved with a plan and a will to see it through, or we are facing a new war in Gaza, maybe even in the coming months," warned Jean-Pierre Filiu, a French academic and author of "Gaza: A History".
"The US and Europe must impose peace. They must admit that the parties involved do not get on and that peace is unpopular, and so it must be imposed."
Netanyahu's hard line had already plunged relations with the West to an unprecedented low, which his latest comments will do little to repair.
"The relationship with America is as bad as it's ever been. Having set out his stall so strongly, it will be hard for Netanyahu to come back and say it was just part of the campaign," said David Hartwell, managing director of Middle East Insider, based in London.
It is not only the Palestinian issue, but also Netanyahu's absolute refusal to support the negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme that has put Israel at odds with international partners.
