It was vintage ‘Bibi’. For the third time in his now record five election victories, Israelis went to bed thinking Benjamin Netanyahu was vanquished only to awaken the next morning and discover he was their prime minister once more.
It first happened in 1996, when Netanyahu was trailing badly in the late night returns before narrowly eclipsing Shimon Peres by 30,000 votes come morning. It occurred again in 2015 when the evening exit polls had the National Union edging Likud, before the official tally released the next day showed Netanyahu handily winning by six Knesset seats. Even in 2009, when Kadima bested Likud by one seat, it took a few days but Netanyahu still managed to outmanoeuvre Tzipi Livni and secured the premiership.
His comeback victory in the Israeli elections on April 9th was equally dramatic – especially given the opposing forces arrayed against him. For starters, he was facing indictment by the Attorney General in three corruption probes. The Israeli media had turned decidedly against him. And three former IDF chiefs-of-staff banded together in a bid to topple Netanyahu, calculating their collective military credentials would neutralise his advantage as “Mr. Security”.
Yet Netanyahu managed to shock the nation and the world – and himself to some extent – by scoring what looks to be an historic fifth term in the Prime Minister’s Office. With this triumph, Netanyahu has achieved legendary status as modern Israel’s most victorious and longest-serving premier – surpassing the nation’s founding leader David Ben-Gurion’s four victories and 13 years in office.
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