The Media Line Netanyahu Appears to Trounce Political Rival, but Not Clear if He Can Form Coalition

Exit polls released as Israeli voting stations closed on Monday night indicate that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party came out ahead of the centrist Blue and White alliance led by challenger Benny Gantz. The polls give the Likud 36-37 seats in the 120-seat Knesset while giving Blue and White only 32-34. This, capped by results giving Netanyahu’s right-wing/religious bloc 59 seats, means that if the official results are similar, the Likud leader will probably be given an opportunity to form a government. Successfully establishing a coalition, however, would require major horse-trading, perhaps with Israel Beitenu, a staunchly right-wing but secular party that so far has remained outside Netanyahu’s bloc owing to the presence of ultra-Orthodox parties. This was the third snap election for Israel in less than a year. The previous two outings left Netanyahu’s bloc with fewer overall seats, and observers are now saying that the additional seats the bloc might win could spur all the parties involved, including Israel Beitenu and the religious parties, to be more realistic in negotiating a coalition. A possible hiccup could come from the fact that Netanyahu goes on trial in a Jerusalem court starting March 17 over three separate cases of alleged corruption. The law in Israel says a prime minister who is indicted and goes on trial while sitting at the head of an existing government can remain in office unless found guilty and exhausting all avenues of appeal. But it says nothing about whether this applies to a prime minister attempting to establish a new government. The country’s top court preferred to stay out of the argument when it was raised before Monday’s election, but it might be just a matter of time until a new petition forces it to address the matter.

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