Netanyahu beaten, not (yet) defeated
With most of the votes counted, it seems that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no Knesset majority and almost no options for composing the next government.
Israel has gone through a roller coaster of four consecutive elections within the past two years only to find itself back at the same spot. Whereas supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tied with his opponents in the April 2019 voting, each garnering the equivalent of 60 Knesset seats, results of the March 23 elections (still incomplete) give the pro-Netanyahu bloc of parties 59 seats and the anti-Netanyahu bloc 61.
This does not augur well for either side. As of now, Netanyahu lacks the majority he needs to form a government, while his opponents will have to defy all logic and perform political acrobatics in order to square the circle and form a so-called government of change. On the one hand, Netanyahu has been blocked for a fourth time from achieving the coveted 61-seat Knesset majority, on the other hand he is still prime minister as he has been for 15 (nonconsecutive) years. This bizarre state of play is made possible by the rules of Israel’s political game, which is no consolation to anyone except Netanyahu himself.
