Prime Minister called the results of the exit polls "a huge victory" or the Likud, Tuesday. In a meeting with party activists at Jerusalem's International Convention Center just a few hours later, he was more careful with his words. He said the Likud was the biggest party, and that the values of the Likud had won because they are accepted by a majority of voters today. Yet this was no incredible victory for the Likud. It very likely wasn't a victory at all. The fact that the Likud is the biggest party is not enough to convince the president to task the man at its head with forming the next coalition.
The victory of Likud's values is also in question. Surveys assessing the public's stance on the government's social policies of late teach us it is in fact the values of the center-left that are the most widely held. A majority of the public supports a division of land that ensures Israel remains a Jewish and democratic state and opposes the unilateral annexation of the West Bank. A vast majority supports the separation of religion and state. A significant majority supports the kind of "big government" that would be responsible for its security, health, education, and economic safety net. It's a little difficult to see that as a victory for Likud values.
So why did Netanyahu say that? He fears a scenario that sees his colleagues in the Likud leadership ask him to step aside. He knows they won't be willing to let him steer the ship after this election, that they take issue with his insistence on remaining in office while facing trial, and that he has prevented any other Likud lawmaker from forming a government. Netanyahu must repeat that he is the only one that can secure Israel vaccines and bring about the normalization of ties with Arab states and insist everything he does is historic and unprecedented. Every time he repeats these claims, they eat further away at his credibility.
Prior to the election, political commentators predicted one of the center-left parties would fail to pass the electoral threshold. That does not appear likely to happen. Just months ago, the Labor party was being eulogized, and many assumed Blue and White and Meretz would fail to make it into the Knesset. While Labor, Meretz, and Gesher garnered a total of seven Knesset seats in the last election combined, this time around, Labor and Meretz appear to have garnered a total of 12 seats combined. Blue and White surprised the experts and managed to win eight seats. From Yesh Atid to Meretz, the bloc has now garnered nearly 40 seats, and that's without taking the seats won by the Arab parties into consideration. They could very likely find themselves in a future coalition. The Likud, on the other hand, has tied its fate to the party of hate, which casts a dark shadow over it and has no power to offer it redemption. Those who mourned the death of the Left may now take their leave.
