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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Even Likud activists are having a hard time explaining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's huge victory as anything other than divine intervention.

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It's unlikely that any film writer or director could have dreamed up Netanyahu's impossible story: an election victory, then abandoned by a partner from the Right (Avigdor Lieberman), then a failure to build a coalition, then another election, a loss, a "technical" bloc, and then another election in which he needed to secure an impossible majority.

What's amazing about Netanyahu's situation is that the political battle was the easy part, compared to his legal fight and his struggle with the media.

It's not just the harsh decisions to indict him and put him on trial – it's hours and hours of leaks that made it to the top of the news broadcasts; a tsunami of embarrassing tapes of his closest family members; and a crowd of pundits who were declaring with a furrowed brow that "the Netanyahu era is over."

As if that wasn't enough, Netanyahu was also facing tough competition. Three former IDF chiefs of staff and Yair Lapid joined forces and also made impressive headway, managing to win about 35 seats in the space of a year.

But it turns out that isn't enough when you're up against Netanyahu.

This was a bad, tainted election campaign in which the discourse was taken to the furthest points of polarization and venom. This is why it was interesting to see Lieberman's face. The person who went to an extreme in slandering and hatred of a minority in Israel, comparing its rabbinical leaders to a virus, spreading anti-Semitic cartoons, and inciting against the haredim, got a smack on Monday that carried the message that hatred is not a recipe for success.

The next few days belong to Netanyahu. There will be praise and celebration, and mostly the realization that despite everything, this is his time.

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