Peace and security in the 2009 election

As in many previous elections, the issues of peace and security were central to the outcome in 2009. The public's turn to the right on these issues informed their electoral decisions, giving the parties of the Right a Knesset majority. However, this does not represent a return to the ideological agenda of territorial maximalism. Rather, the 'New Right' is focused primarily on security concerns, which it believes should be prioritized over peace diplomacy or further unilateral withdrawals. It operates within the overall 'neo-centrist' consensus which solidified in 2006, namely a willingness to make extensive territorial concessions in principle, coupled with opposition in practice due to a complete lack of faith that such concessions will bring Israel peace and security. Aside from this, there was one new and worrying development in the election campaign: the incitement of tension between Israel's Jewish and Arab citizens around the issue of peace and security.