Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave everything he had in the March 2 elections and delivered amazing results that made everyone I know in the media, Right and Left supporters alike, utter a "wow" of amazement when the exit polls were announced. On Monday night Netanyahu did it, again.
The collective amazement stemmed from the scope of the surprise, from a true appreciation for Netanyahu. even by his rivals, and from relief – we won't have to suffer through a fourth election. The Israeli public has been spared another expensive, divisive elections. We now have to pull ourselves together and remind ourselves that we are one people; bridge the gaps, and recover from a year of political upheavals. We can do it.
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Those who paid the price were Yamina and Labor-Gesher-Meretz, whose projected seats shrunk by nearly half compared to what the polls predicted for them at the beginning of the third election campaign. Israel, it seems, had an American-style election: A two-party system, with the big parties swallowing up the smaller ones in one gulp.
The one who deserves to be taken to task by the public is Otzma Yehudit chief Itamar Ben Gvir, in his hubris, refused to drop out of the race and demonstrated utter national irresponsibility. The egoist whose failure to pass the electoral threshold was projected by every poll should be denunciated by the Right as a whole – not for his extremist views, but for his extremist behavior.
If the exit polls prove true, and if no MKs from the Center-Left would be willing to "defect" (they are still hidden at this time), it is possible that we will see Netanyahu's and the Likud fight for every last vote. Remember the New Right's Naftali Bennett during the April 9 elections, and how he insisted every problematic ballot box be recounted? He may now have to pass these fighting tactics to Likud.
The unequivocal conclusion from all of this is that the right-wing bloc has a very clear majority. It would be absurd to ignore that in making decisions regarding the "deal of the century", for instance. We should hope that Netanyahu will take the trust vested in him by the public and implement right-wing policies.
