Israel Update: Against All Odds

In the days just prior to Israel’s election this week, it appeared to many that Benjamin Netanyahu’s days as Israel’s Prime Minister had come to an end. Most pre-election polls showed Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party lagging well behind in the race for Knesset seats. 

Of course, a Netanyahu defeat was precisely the outcome many left-of-center politicians in the U.S. and Europe — as well as many in the mainstream news media — were hoping for. In fact, an entire election strategy team, formerly affiliated with the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, had been dispatched to Israel to help unseat Netanyahu. This effort tapped heavily into the fundraising network that helped Mr. Obama get elected twice to the White House.

For example, on election day there were reports that wealthy donors from outside Israel had hired buses to transport Arab-Israeli voters to the polls. Many experts thought the best Netanyahu’s Likud could hope for was a tie.

But after Israeli voters went to the polls on Tuesday, and the first exit polls released their findings, it quickly became clear that many Israelis were reluctant to gamble their security on untested leadership. 

The Prime Minister immediately took to Twitter and declared: “Against all odds: a great victory for the Likud. A major victory for the people of Israel!” 

Copyright 2015. AP Images

Within hours after the final votes were cast, it became apparent that not only had Netanyahu survived, he and his Likud party had won a stunning victory. Pre-election polls had Likud running four Knesset seats behind its main rival political party. It now appears that Likud actually won by six seats.

His surprise win represents a major defeat and disappointment to the foreign powers and organizations that had thrown millions into the effort to unseat him.

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