Netanyahu has won the fight of his life for the public's trust. Even though his trial is scheduled to begin on March 17, he walked out of the election head held high. The large section of the public who went out to support the Likud were first and foremost putting their faith in Netanyahu. They were voting to protest the indictments against him, the legal system and the police force and all the other parts of the system that have ignored his many successes as prime minister and dared to claim that he was working solely on his own behalf to avoid prison.

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Former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, on the other hand, scored a painful failure. Theoretically, he managed to maintain Blue and White's electoral strength at 33 seats. But he, along with the other members of the party cockpit Gabi Ashkenazi, Yair Lapid, and Moshe Ya'alon, couldn't convince the public that they were capable of governing. Gantz's lack of political experience and recent reports about his company were his downfall.

Polls tell us that the election results will make it difficult for Netanyahu to form a government, because he only has the support of about 60 MKs from the Likud, Yamina, United Torah Judaism, and Shas parties. Still, the center-left has only 39-41 seats (counting Blue and White and Labor-Gesher-Meretz). Even if Lieberman joins them, they'll still only have about 47. If the Joint Arab List were to cooperate with Gantz, it would give the latter 60 MKs at best.

One thing is certain, President Reuven Rivlin won't have to hesitate next week about whom to entrust with forming a governing coalition. Netanyahu is the only possibility, and he has more than one option for success.

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It's not only a legal matter, but also – even mainly – a political one. The fact that he failed to win two elections and was twice unable to put together a governing coalition has cracked his self-confidence. Benjamin Netanyahu is facing an election, and it looks like for the first time, he doesn't know what approach to take. How can he overcome the polls and the previous two election results and bring the right-wing bloc the 61 seats it needs? The decision to request immunity from prosecution was another Hail Mary pass in the shaky morass of uncertainty in which he is sinking.

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This week, Blue and White played up the matter of immunity for Netanyahu, hoping it could continue to make headlines for several weeks more of the campaign, although the issue in and of itself is quite esoteric. The world didn't shake when Labor and Social Affairs Minister Haim Katz asked for immunity. Temporary immunity cannot rescue a suspect from a trial – it can only pause the process for as long as he or she remains in office. Benny Gantz's accusations against Netanyahu were to be expected, but if the latter hadn't asked for immunity and announced that as far as he was concerned, the trial could proceed immediately, Gantz would have attacked him even more strongly for running the cabinet in the evening hours and spending his mornings in court.

The opposition, which has the support of major and key sectors of the media, is finding it difficult to understand how after the investigations, the police recommendations, the state attorney's recommendations, and the decision of the attorney general to indict pending a hearing and his final decision to indict, Netanyahu is still on his feet. How he is still supported by half the people who are refusing to let him go despite everything, and how he is using his voter base to keep the other side out of power. It's making them crazy. Because more than anything, it points to them. It's one thing to fail in two elections in a row, but to fail against an opponent who is suspected of serious crimes – what does that say about them and their political paths?

Their aggressive campaign against Netanyahu, now in its third election cycle, rests on their own assumption that he cannot be defeated at the polls and therefore the only way of ousting him goes through the attorney general, the state attorney, and the High Court. What was Gantz's speech rejecting immunity for Netanyahu actually about, if not a clear message that he cannot bring down Netanyahu on his own? It said that Gantz, for the third time, will need outside help from the court. If he believed in his own strength, he would say, let Netanyahu be given immunity and that their contest would be decided where democratic decisions are made – at the ballot box.

It takes some serious pyrotechnics to turn Netanyahu's request for immunity into a major event. At this stage, everyone who is with Netanyahu will stick with him. Anyone who was going to leave has already gotten off the bus. Blue and White can't directly take advantage of the event for political gain, but taking over the discourse is an easier target. Slogans such as "turning the Knesset into a haven for criminals," or "Netanyahu only cares about Netanyahu" – as well as the term "immunity government" – are catchy and will register with the media, which throws itself behind anti-Likud campaigns.

When it comes to the attorney general and the High Court's position on the legality of appointing Netanyahu to form a government, it's hard not to notice their extreme disinclination to address the matter. It would seem that the system has never had to deal with more volatile material than the question of whether Netanyahu can or cannot run for prime minister. This was particularly clear when they treated a High Court petition against Netanyahu like an IED – something from which to run and seek cover.

It's hard for them to reject the petition. An entire camp, their own camp, is waiting to hear their verdict about the quickest way to avoid having to compete against Netanyahu again. But it's also difficult for them to accept it. There is no legal reason for them to do so. So they stammer noncommittal things about "it's too early" and "maybe a miracle will happen and Netanyahu will lose on his own," which would relieve them of the burden of having to make a decision.

A waiting game

Like all the election campaigns for the past decade, things are a mess on the Right. Two weeks ago, Rabbi Rafi Peretz and far-right activist Itamar Ben-Gvir surprised Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich and announced that Peretz's Habayit Hayehudi and Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit would be running on a joint ticket. The deal has reserved places for members of Smotrich's Tkuma party on its list, including Smotrich himself, but as of now, the transportation minister is refusing to carpool.

There are different versions of what prompted the move. Smotrich's people say that it was motivated solely to allow wider competition because it appeared that a single united party wouldn't pass the minimum electoral threshold.

Smotrich also had the idea of uniting the central committees of each party – 800 from Habayit Hayehudi, 400 from Tkuma – and hold a single vote to determine the list. But that idea was a "no" for Peretz. Some say that the partnership between Habayit Hayehudi and Otzma Yehudit is designed to torpedo an attempt to hold party primaries or any other move that would oust Peretz from the leadership of Habayit Heyehudi. The other version of events holds that it was actually Smotrich who is responsible for the joint list. When it became clear to Peretz and Ben-Gvir that Smotrich was taking aim at both their parties, they decided to join forces behind his back. They think Smotrich has no political ammunition. Naftali Bennett doesn't want him in the New Right, although Ayelet Shaked does. Netanyahu won't take him into the Likud, so the only option for Peretz and Ben-Gvir was to unite or disappear. They think Smotrich will have no choice but to take the bait and join their list.

At this point, Smotrich can't say with certainty that that is what will happen, so he is waiting to see what happens in the next two weeks, leading up to the deadline for parties to submit their lists to the Central Elections Committee.

A day before the deadline, Habayit Hayehudi's central committee is scheduled to meet to approve the joint ticket. It will pass with a large majority; a similar one was already approved before the April 9 election, but that isn't stopping the party wheelers and dealers from trying to scupper the decision. But joint tickets and mergers are the only way to keep right-wing votes from being lost to fringe parties that can't make it over the minimum electoral threshold.

At a time when the right-wing camp is fighting for its life, it's astonishing to see how the politicians are still dealing with nuances. People think Smotrich will wind up joining the right-wing list, but if he doesn't, Habayit Hayehudi and Otzma Yehudit have one last option ready – putting a woman in the No. 2 place on their joint list, someone from one of the more liberal religious Zionist communities, like Raanana or Givat Shmuel. Or maybe Eli Yishai, formerly of Shas. The last time around, Otzma Yehudit didn't make it into the Knesset. Perhaps now that they've joined forces with Habayit Hayehudi, the situation will change.

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"Recently, I have seen a jump in the slander, twists, and nasty takes against me personally and against my family and my close associates, coming out of the Balfour St. factory," Lieberman wrote, referring to the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem.

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"Even though, since the start of the election campaign for the 22^nd Knesset, I made it clear that Yisrael Beytenu would support a unity government only and despite the fact that I personally behaved in a responsible manner, time and again associates of the prime minister repeat different versions of an 'explanation' of why I didn't join the haredi-messianic government under Netanyahu's leadership.

"For anyone who missed it, this is their 'explanation': that Lieberman has been extorted by the police and the prosecution and is afraid of being investigated and has turned into a puppet of the legal system," Lieberman wrote.

"The prime minister and his associates should know – I have been through plenty of investigations and I was never afraid. I never hid behind immunity, and I paid for all my legal representation out of my own pocket and never asked friends to take out bank loans [to cover legal fees]. If I were afraid of something or wanted to placate someone, I wouldn't have said – clearly and from the start – that as far as I'm concerned, the prime minister can continue to serve until there is a clear ruling, indictments notwithstanding. That is the law in Israel, which was passed in 2001, and which I voted against. But despite everything, I believe that we have to honor laws even when we don't like them.

"If I wanted to attack or harm Mr. Prime Minister where he is most vulnerable, I would remind him of what he said in 2008 about another prime minister, Ehud Olmert – that he was up to his neck in investigations, and had no public or moral mandate to make such fateful decisions for Israel," Lieberman continued in his post.

The Yisrael Beytenu leader went on to say that there was concern, which he called "not baseless," that Netanyahu would "make decisions based on personal interests of political survival rather than the interests of the nation."

Lieberman also said he would support a bill authored by the Blue and White party that would bar any MK under indictment from being charged with assembling a government coalition, and support the establishment of an interim Knesset committee that would vote to take immunity off the table for Netanyahu.

"Mr. Prime Minister, it seems that due to your age, your memory is faulty, and you've forgotten that I supported the president's compromise framework that would give you, not [Blue and White leader] Benny Gantz the right to serve first as prime minister [in a unity government]. If I behaved like you do, I would not hesitate to join Blue and White in a unity government. The difference between us is that I have principles and you just have interests," Lieberman wrote.

Lieberman went on to object to various accusations that he was an operative being handled by foreign authorities or an "agent of chaos."

"Mr. Prime Minister, maybe you are an agent of anonymous, wealthy forces from various places around the world? Maybe you are an agent of [billionaire] James Packer? Maybe you are an agent of Spencer Partridge? Maybe you serve the financial interests of Nathan Milikowsky? The difference between us is that for me, the end never justified the means and I never traded principles for seats at the table. So look in the mirror," Lieberman wrote.

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