Lately they’ve been calling Benjamin Netanyahu “Houdini.” In three elections since April 2019, he hasn’t won. Yet he’s come out on top—again—as prime minister, and his new government will be sworn in early next week.
In all three of those elections, Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc actually soundly defeated the left-wing bloc. Yet, for different reasons, his bloc couldn’t reach a 61-seat majority in the Knesset—first because of a renegade right-wing party that broke away from the bloc, then because of an Israeli Arab party whose electoral gains didn’t leave enough seats for a right-wing parliamentary majority.
This time, though, amid the COVID-19 crisis, with Netanyahu’s popularity soaring because of his successful handling of the crisis, opposition leader Benny Gantz finally agreed to join Netanyahu in a national unity government. In so doing he broke up his own 33-seat party, decimating what’s left of the Israeli left, and took his now only 17-seat Blue and White faction with him.
Under the deal they worked out, Netanyahu is supposed to be PM for a year and a half, followed by Gantz as PM for a year and a half. Because that political deal has no legal standing, many believe that, before his year and a half runs out, “Houdini” Netanyahu will find a way out of it and keep serving as PM. Time will tell.
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