Beyond Netanyahu’s Triumph

Editorial of The New York Sun | March 2, 2020

The way The New York Sun looks at what appears to be a dramatic victory by Prime Minister Netanyahu in today’s election is as part of a broader story. It involves not only Israel but all of the freedom countries. It echoes Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s triumph in the campaign for Brexit. The dynamic at work in the two elections may turn out to presage a victory by President Trump in the election that is gathering in America.

Results in Israel’s vote — its third in the past year, after two earlier contests failed to produce a government — appear, finally, to have put Mr. Netanyahu within reach of a mandate. It’s all the more astonishing because it comes as the incumbent premier is about to stand trial on criminal charges of bribery. Yet early returns show that Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud Party appears to be within a seat or three of a majority in the Knesset.

If confirmed, that would put Mr. Netanyahu in the pole position to seek to put together a government by trying to win over from other parties one or more Knesset members. He could even seek coalition partners from the main opposition bloc, known as Blue and White. The betting is that Mr. Netanyahu will be able to do that. No newspapermen are predicting otherwise, though final results are due only Wednesday.

One cloud over all this remains Mr. Netanyahu’s trial. The liberal daily Haaretz reckons in a headline that, with the indictment outstanding, “Netanyahu’s comeback puts Israel on course for a constitutional crisis.” Voters were prepared to give Mr. Netanyahu such a commanding plurality, Haaretz’s correspondent suggests, “because they trust his leadership more than they trust Israel’s legal system.” And the opposition leader.............To Read More....