Vote leaves Netanyahu’s future in doubt

JERUSALEM — After a decade of mesmerizing world leaders, subduing his rivals and eking out dramatic election victories, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future is suddenly in doubt.

With nearfinal results from Israel’s election on Tuesday, he has been left well short of the parliamentary majority he had sought — not only to continue in power but also to fend off a looming corruption indictment.

With over 90 percent of the votes counted late Wednesday, challenger Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party captured 33 seats in the 120seat parliament, to 32 seats for Netanyahu’s conservative Likud.

That leaves neither party poised to control a majority coalition with their smaller allies, leaving maverick politician Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Yisrael Beitenu party, as the key power broker. Lieberman has called for a broad unity government with the two major parties.

“Judging by the present situation assessment, Netanyahu is no longer capable of winning an election in Israel. This story is over,” said Yossi Verter, political commentator for the Haaretz daily.

Such forecasts might be seen by some as premature. But it appears that Netanyahu’s political instincts, once deemed impeccable, led to some questionable decisions that came back to hurt him in the latest campaign.

Netanyahu, who turns 70 next month, has traditionally relied on a stable majority of ultraOrthodox Jewish religious and hardline nationalist parties. That alliance fell apart following elections in April when Lieberman, a longtime ally turned rival, refused to join a new coalition with religious partners.

Lieberman, a hawk like Netanyahu on security issues but also fiercely secular, said ultra-Orthodox parties had gained too much influence. Just short of a parliamentary majority, Netanyahu was forced to take the unprecedented step of holding a second election in a year.

Looming over the campaign were Netanyahu’s legal woes. Israel’s attorney general has recommended indicting him on bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges in a series of corruption scandals, pending a hearing scheduled in early October.

Netanyahu had hoped to capture a narrow coalition of hardline parties that would grant him immunity from prosecution.

He embarked on a campaign of stunts and promises aimed at shoring up his base. Borrowing tactics from the political playbook of his friend, President Donald Trump, he lashed out at the media, police, judiciary and election commission, alleging a vast conspiracy against him. He vowed to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank and threatened to unleash a war on Gaza militants.

He saved special vitriol for Israel’s Arab minority, implying that they were a hostile fifth column out to destroy the nation. He tried, and failed, to pass legislation that would install monitoring cameras in voting booths as he made unfounded claims of fraud in Arab districts. An automated post on his Facebook page claimed Arabs “want to annihilate us all.”

Arab leaders accused Netanyahu of racism and trying to intimidate voters to stay home on election day.

Menahem Kahana / AFP/Getty Images Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during his Likud party meeting in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Netanyahu has cancelld his planned visit to the United Nations General Assembly due to the “political context” in Israel, sources in his office said.