He is back from the dead, once again. Less than a week before the March 2 elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has succeeded in edging past the opposition Blue and White party in the polls and is drawing closer to the coveted goal of a 61-seat Knesset majority for his Likud party. A mission deemed impossible just days ago.
Netanyahu succeeded with his comeback despite the fact that two weeks after the voting, on March 17, he is due to present himself at Jerusalem District Court to face an indictment on three severe charges, among them bribery. Despite the upcoming trial, and against all odds, Netanyahu now manages to control the public agenda, dictate the pace and generate new spins almost daily that boost his support and create a positive momentum. Everyone who eulogized Netanyahu should now take a deep breath. He will not be able to prevent the criminal trial (charges have already been filed in court), but the chances that he will form Israel’s next government and run the state as a defendant in a corruption trial no longer appear so imaginary.
Netanyahu’s Likud still lacks four or five seats to cross the 61-seat hurdle in a coalition together with its right-wing and ultra-Orthodox partners. Prospects of success are not high, but contrary to last week, it no longer appears to be a totally impossible feat. No mission is too impossible for Netanyahu.
Netanyahu is fighting for his political and personal life as never before. He is running against a group of gentlemen who are trying to maintain a dignified front and avoid disrespecting the prime minister so as not to anger moderate Likud supporters who might yet jump ship and vote for the opposition Blue and White party. But Netanyahu has no such qualms. He enjoys getting under everyone’s skin and stirring up daily storms. None of them appear to be causing him electoral damage. Not the indictment, not the renewed conflagration on the Gaza border that is forcing hundreds of thousands of Israelis to cower in shelters, not even the failed attempt to annex parts of the West Bank prior to the elections in order to please his right-wing constituency.
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