Labor Chairman Avi Gabbay is personally responsible for his party's dismal showing in Tuesday's election.
Throughout the campaign, Gabbay kept claiming that "Laborites are coming home," only to see the party win six seats (the counting is still ongoing).
Labor's demise is perhaps the most surprising outcome of this election. Labor voters not only refused to come home but also ran away from the party and embraced the center-left bloc Blue and White, headed by former Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz.
Yes, Gantz drew votes away from Labor, making it impossible to maintain its size in the next Knesset, but Gabbay should have done much better.
The New Right experienced a similar ordeal after Likud zeroed in on its potential voter base. According to an almost final tally of the vote, it won't be part of the next Knesset.
The exit polls on Tuesday night failed to answer the main question: Who will be our prime minister? But as the votes came in, it became clear that Netanyahu had a clear path to a fifth term, with more than 60 seats going to Likud and its allies.
The exit polls diverged, but all of them made it clear that Blue and White failed to meet its overarching objective of outnumbering Likud by at least five seats.
Over the next several hours this failure became even more apparent as the real results came in, showing Likud tied with Blue and White at 35 seats.
In the wake of this development, there is practically zero chance the president would ask Gantz to form a government.
