Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached the finish line of the most important election in his life having failed to achieve his two objectives. His bloc of right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties did not win the 61 seats he needed, and his own Likud was not the largest party.

Worrying indications that this might happen accumulated throughout election day, but Netanyahu kept fighting, going out to Jerusalem’s Central Bus Station and the Mahaneh Yehuda market to encourage people to vote. And yet, by afternoon, the feeling in the prime minister’s Jerusalem residence, which also served as Netanyahu’s campaign headquarters, seemed to be that things were spinning out of control. Arab voters ended up going to the polls in droves. Seats that once belonged to Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu, which was integrated recently into the Likud, scattered every which way and the far-right Otzma Yehudit was well below the electoral threshold. Nevertheless, Netanyahu being who he is, he kept fighting until the polls closed.

Netanyahu was prepared for the possibility he would fail to amass 61 seats. Within minutes of the TV stations releasing their exit polls, Netanyahu began circling the wagons with the heads of the ultra-Orthodox parties, Yamina and top Likud officials to stabilize his bloc and signal that he is still a relevant player with a united party and camp behind him.

It was exactly how he reacted to his devastating defeat in 2006, when the exit polls on election night showed that the Likud had collapsed, winning only 11 seats (it picked up its 12th seat the next morning). Rumors of a putsch hung over the party. Back then, Netanyahu knew that he had to appear before the party and show himself as determined and in control to unite the rank and file around him. He recognized how sensitive the situation was. Any sign of weakness or hint of uncertainty would be interpreted as an admission of failure and maybe even determine his fate. While Blue and White celebrated his defeat with considerable restraint, while the Joint List leaders were absolutely jubilant over his downfall and while Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman delivered what sounded like a victory speech, stressing that he was in no one’s pocket, Netanyahu did what he had to do: be seen in public.