The emerging election results, based on exit polls, are nothing short of an electric shock for Israel's left-wing Ashkenazi elite. The parties that represented them – Yesh Atid, Labor, Meretz – are now the outgoing government, having received a clear message of distrust from the public.
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The vast majority have rejected their disregard for the Western Wall and moves to allow chametz on Pesach and run public transportation on Shabbat. The justice system, in particular, was dealt a heavy blow.
This conclusion will not change even if the Balad faction garners the necessary seats, resulting in gridlock, all the more so if the exit polls are right and Netanyahu is indeed headed for a victory. It will be his most amazing accomplishment, and as we know, there is no shortage of those.
He has achieved this victory almost single-handedly while being on trial and having renounced the elite. Netanyahu relies almost exclusively on the traditional-religious-rightist-conservative public, without the help of the mainstream media and only through social media and a press that supports him. No political school teaches you how to do campaigns like this. "I get what I want," he once blurted out into the microphones, and once again proved that this is in fact true.
The connection between these two elements, similar to Netanyahu's victory in 1996, speaks volumes about Israelis, in a completely different way than is commonly thought. Israel is predominantly right-wing, religious, and traditional. It gives Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich more power than Labor and Meters, more to the ultra-Orthodox than Avigdor Lieberman, and more to Likud than Yesh Atid. And on at least some matters, the conservative positions of Ra'am are identical to those of the religious Jewish parties.
The victory, if achieved, is, of course, only the means, not the goal. If Netanyahu becomes prime minister again, he will have to deal with the same deficiencies and distortions that he neglected in his previous terms.
He aptly pointed them out during his year and a half in the opposition: returning power from the High Court to the Knesset, ending criminal extortion, restoring governance, and preserving Area C. This time he will finally have to be all-out right-wing.
These and other internal matters that are not his strong suit. Some of them are also very sensitive in terms of internal Israeli matters, and Netanyahu will have to handle this explosiveness more carefully. But the duty to act in accordance with the voter's decree takes precedence – and it also falls on the opposition.
The "anyone but Netanyahu" bloc must accept the voter's opinion, whatever it may be. Its leaders, who glorified the value of statehood, must prove that they adhere to it even when the numbers are against them.
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