RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://pjmedia.com/trending/netanyahu-at-the-cusp-of-a-dramatic-comeback/

Israel went to the polls on Monday. By Tuesday morning, as vote-counting proceeded, it appeared all but certain that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Likud Party, and his right-wing bloc had scored a dramatic comeback victory.

First it will help to recap.

Netanyahu was prime minister from 1996 to 1999, and again consecutively from 2009 to 2019, winning elections in 2009, 2013, and 2015. When he ran again in April 2019, it seemed he’d won again handily as the right-wing bloc took 65 seats out of Israel’s 120-member Knesset (to win you need 61).

But something happened on the way to coalition-forming. Avigdor Liberman, head of a secular-hawkish faction, demanded that Netanyahu stop making concessions to two ultra-religious parties that had been part of his coalition since 2015.

It was a demand Netanyahu had to refuse, since his ultra-religious coalition parties held far more seats than Liberman’s faction, which had won all of five seats. But when Liberman pulled out of the coalition, it was left with 60 seats—one short of the 61-seat minimum. Israel has been in electoral limbo ever since.

Especially because in the September 2019 elections, Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc—sans Lieberman’s faction—slipped even further to 55 seats. Netanyahu’s main challenger, former chief of staff Benny Gantz, led his centrist Blue and White party to an impressive performance—but his bloc, like Netanyahu’s, fell way short of 61 mandates. (If you’re wondering about the arithmetic, the remaining mandates went to the Joint List, an Israeli Arab party that’s hostile to Israel as a Jewish state and not grist for anyone’s coalition.)

https://www.jns.org/opinion/is-netanyahus-significant-victory-suff

Keeping in mind that the results of Israel’s Knesset elections are not final, the tally indicates that the attempt to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed abysmally. It remains to be seen whether his party’s victory on Monday means that his bloc has enough of a majority to form a government. While the initial numbers were encouraging—with Likud outnumbering its key rival, Blue and White by four mandates and the right-wing bloc surpassing the left-wing block by five—throughout Tuesday’s ongoing vote count and verification, the picture continued to fluctuate. By late afternoon, it appeared that Netanyahu’s victory was amazing, but not sufficient.

The significance of this election—the third in less than a year—lies in its elements of surprise. In the first place, voter turnout reached 71 percent, the highest in 21 years.

Despite public whining about “election fatigue” and surveys suggesting that the political deadlock would not be broken, citizens came out in record numbers to cast their ballots. Contrary to descriptions of countrywide malaise, the atmosphere at polling stations was cheerful and energetic. Social media was rife with smiling selfies of voters doing their civic duty, as well as photos of children accompanying their parents in the process.

Even most of the 5,500 Israelis subjected to house quarantine—as a result of possibly being exposed to the coronavirus—showed up at the 16 special tents set up for them across the country. Though they complained of long lines, they appeared to be happy to be out in the world after spending several days stuck in isolation, with only Netflix to keep them company.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/israels-conservative-consensus-11583281438?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

A nationalist leader runs against liberal elites and a rigged system. He’s opposed by most of the security establishment, called a threat to democracy, and bombarded with legal investigations and prosecutions. Yet the efforts to use the legal system to oust him fail and even cause his support with voters to tick upward.

That could apply to President Trump, but it also reflects the political saga of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Monday outperformed expectations at the ballot box even as his corruption trial looms. Sixty-one seats in the Knesset are required for a majority government, and Mr. Netanyahu’s center-right coalition is expected to secure 58 to the opposition’s 55 in the latest Haaretz tally.

That’s a notable improvement on the 55 seats Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition won last time, but it may not be enough to break the political stalemate that has led to three Israeli elections in a year. If the numbers hold, the Prime Minister still must coax at least three parliamentarians from opposing parties to his side.

Mr. Netanyahu’s comfortable majority fell apart last May when a secular nationalist party headed by Avigdor Lieberman broke with Mr. Netanyahu over his accommodation of military exemptions for Haredi Jews. The second election in September saw Mr. Netanyahu’s bloc shrink, but the opposing Blue and White coalition also couldn’t form a government.