The success of Benjamin Netanyahu is a combination of various reasons and much of it is based on the division among his opponents.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to make a comeback as the final vote count from the Knesset elections gave him and his allies a clear majority of 65 seats in Parliament. With 99% of the votes being counted, Netanyahu’s Likud party has earned 32 of the 120 Knesset seats.
There was a situation of a political deadlock with five elections in the last four years after Benjamin Netanyahu was charged with corruption. With his reluctance to resign as the Prime Minister amidst the possibility of a criminal trial and the Covid-19 pandemic in Israel, Naftali Bennett, who was the leader of the Yamina alliance, decided to form a rotational government with the then Leader of the Opposition, Yair Lapid, thus ending Netanyahu’s 12-year stint as Prime Minister.
Netanyahu lost power under these circumstances and his critics mentioned that this might be the last election for the 73-year-old leader if he failed to form government. Netanyahu on the other hand knows the power of his personality politics and much to the expectations, he cemented his position in the race to the Prime Minister’s office, a post that he has held longer than any other Israeli leader. Yair Lapid’s defeat was imminent as he was not able to form a stronger coalition and his antagonism towards the Haredi Parties limited his options. He further campaigned by asking the people on the left to vote for him, reducing the votes from the smaller parties.
The success of Benjamin Netanyahu though was a combination of various reasons and much of it was based on the division among his opponents. The left-wing Zionist Meretz party was knocked out of the Knesset as it failed to cross even the 3.25% threshold required. The party couldn’t even agree to run jointly with the Labor Party nor with any of the left parties which further divided their vote.
Ittay Flescher, a journalist based out of Jerusalem with the Plus61J Media in an interview with this author pointed out that “the anti-tax Omtez Party received 13,761 votes, while Yaron Zalicha had 12,637 votes. Had these two left-wing parties supported the Meretz, it would have easily passed the threshold.” The campaign of Meretz as pointed out by Flescher was also “very negative and anti-Bibi, which lacked issue-based messaging or any of its achievements.”
The coalition partners of Benjamin Netanyahu, though, have been the religious-right bloc, including his party Likud, far-right religious Zionism, United Torah Judaism and Shas. There has obviously been a rightward shift in Israeli politics, which was evident with the seats won by MK Itamar Ben Gvir, who advocated for expelling disloyal Israeli citizens and Bezalel Smotrich who is a proud self-described homophobe. This rightward drift in Israeli society was also one of the reasons why Netanyahu is back in power. This might be an efficient solution in the short term to form a coalition with these ultra-orthodox parties, but he has created a new far-right entity where he seems to be the most balanced personality.
The campaign by the political parties though has been based on the rising cost of living in Israel, judicial reforms, something which the anti-Bibi bloc believes that the coalition of Netanyahu might alter, rising lone wolf attacks, and instability in Jerusalem and West Bank, but the issue of the Israeli identity has also been at the forefront. The May 2021 Lod Riots recorded as one of the worst inter-communal violence in Israel, killed two citizens, injured dozens and Arab residents burned and looted Jewish property. This was a flash point where the Jewish residents decide to vote for the far-right and wanted the country to emphasise its Jewish identity and not partner with Arab political parties.
There have been a few congratulatory messages exchanged between the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu and that sparks the discussion of the camaraderie between the two leaders. Though the relationship between India and Israel has reached a certain point of comfort that it is beyond personalities; the height of the relationship was during the earlier Modi-Bibi tenure and hence there is a certain expectation in the acceleration of the relationship with more investments, I2U2 engagements and joint research and development projects this time too.
Benjamin Netanyahu, however, has a tough job at home—managing a coalition like this and yet stick to his core principles. He probably knew it might be his last chance for making a political comeback and he fought tooth and nail.
Ratnadeep Chakraborty is the co-founder of an independent media company that covers the spheres of strategic affairs called The Honest Critique. He is also the host of the podcast series, Line of Truth. Ratnadeep writes on issues related to the developments in West Asia, particularly Israel, terrorism and non-state militant actors.