The Israeli elections prove Netanyahu’s political prowess

Those banking on a loss for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in last week’s elections were sorely mistaken. Although neither his bloc nor the opposition has a straightforward path to forming the next government, it is astonishing that Netanyahu’s political fortunes endure at all.Consider the headwinds he faced in this election. On Oct. 7, 2023, Israel suffered the darkest day in its 75-year-history. Netanyahu, who led the government that failed to prevent these terrorist massacres, was thought to be a goner politically. Polling conducted after Oct. 7 found that the opposition would wallop Netanyahu and his Likud party. It looked like the Israeli people were going to punish Netanyahu and the government for the catastrophe of Oct. 7. How could any politician, even one as savvy as Bibi, overcome these odds?Netanyahu found a way. He pummeled Hamas in Gaza and secured the return of all hostages, living and deceased. He kneecapped Hezbollah in Lebanon. And he degraded the Iranian regime’s capabilities in close coordination with the United States. Large numbers of Israelis appreciated these battlefield gains, and there’s no doubt that the country’s regional standing is much better today than it was when the war began. In his latest bid to stay in power, Netanyahu opposed any state inquiry into the failures on Oct. 7 in hopes that the electorate would judge him the best candidate to address Israel’s present and future security challenges. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu casts his ballot in his Likud party primary elections ahead of Israel’s general election in October, in Jerusalem, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, Pool) His play appears to have worked, at least somewhat. Three years after Oct. 7, Netanyahu upended the narrative. Israel’s tactical and strategic accomplishments redounded to his political advantage and dented Likud’s losses at the ballot box. One wonders whether anyone else could have pulled such a Houdini act.To be sure, Netanyahu is not omnipotent. He operates within a parliamentary democracy in which politicians answer to voters. They ousted him from the premiership twice before (in 1999 and 2021) and could very well do so again. Many Israelis hold Netanyahu responsible for Oct. 7 and will choose any candidate except him. Others have grown tired of Netanyahu, who’s in his third prime ministerial stint since 1996, and think that new blood is in order.Bibi would hardly be the first parliamentarian to succumb to popular fatigue. Even the most successful ones struggle to stay in power over an extended period. In the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill’s reward for defeating Nazi Germany was a crushing loss to Clement Attlee in July 1945. Forty-five years later, Margaret Thatcher, the other great British prime minister of the last century, stepped down after her own Cabinet turned on her. Yet Netanyahu has managed to hold the top job in the Knesset longer than either Thatcher or Churchill held it in the House of Commons. And he’s done so amid unrelentingly hostile press coverage and vicious attacks by political adversaries.This election is further proof that Netanyahu is sui generis in Israel. His rivals, who include former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, are not cut from the same cloth. There’s a reason why Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history by a considerable distance.ISRAEL’S ARAB PARTIES CHOOSE BETWEEN ‘BAD AND EVEN WORSE’ AS THEY BACK GADI EISENKOT OVER NETANYAHU TO FORM GOVERNMENTNetanyahu has earned so many enemies because he’s so effective. Even they must marvel at the Machiavellian machinations that have sustained his decadeslong grip on Israeli politics.No one knows how the next Israeli government will shape up. Someone other than Netanyahu could lead it. Or Netanyahu could be at the helm once again. That the latter is even a possibility is a testament to the man’s unmatched skills.Daniel J. Samet is a Jeane Kirkpatrick Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.