Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Bibi will survive again

A weird quirk of Israel's current politics is that:

If Netanyahu wins an election, he gets to be prime minister.

If Netanyahu narrowly loses and election, he gets to be prime minister.

Israel keeps having elections. But the only way Netanyahu doesn't get to be prime minister when the dust clears is if he loses by a lot. It does not look like he lost by a lot.

I'm sure the period of uncertainty will continue for a little longer, as the not-Netanyahu and Netanyahu factions try to cobble something together with whatever seats they end up with. But because the vote wasn't a definitive rejection of Netanyahu, I expect Bibi will get to stay prime minister, at least for the brief period until the next election.