The primary election saw 49 percent of all Likud party members show up to vote in spite of the stormy weather, a slight increase over the last time a primary election was held by the Likud.
Of the nearly 60,000 people who cast a ballot, 72.5 percent did so for the incumbent Netanyahu — and 27.5 percent for his challenger, Gideon Sa’ar.
See this tweet:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has easily fended off primary-election challenger Gideon Saar to retain control of the ruling Likud party, winning 72% of the vote in official results. https://t.co/VzRpMm3oOa
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 27, 2019
Netanyahu’s win was expected, but the landslide proportions of it were not and thus the primary challenge itself had most assuredly worked to Netanyahu’s advantage.
It reaffirmed his complete hold over the Likud party and gave him a reason to re-energize his base ahead of the March 2 general election.
But there is more.
In the coming days, the Israeli Supreme Court will hear an appeal on whether a member of the Knesset under criminal indictment such as Netanyahu can be tasked with forming a government.
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Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, Netanyahu’s nemesis and the very person who allowed the indictments against him to proceed, will issue an opinion on this matter and submit it to the court ahead of the hearing.
Mandelblit’s legal opinion will be the official legal position of the Israeli government — and the court will have to render the final decision.
The fact that nearly 45,000 Israelis braved the weather on a regular workday — general elections in Israel are national holidays — to express their confidence in Netanyahu’s leadership may make the idea of making their preferred candidate ineligible for the post of prime minister rather unpalatable for the high court, no matter how far removed from the regular electorate they may think themselves to be.
Netanyahu’s easy defeat of a challenge that was brought against him by a popular politician at a moment when he appeared to be significantly if not mortally wounded serves as a timely reminder.
The reminder is for anyone who harbored any doubts as to the political mastery of the longest serving and most successful Israeli prime minister of all time.
This piece originally appeared on Tsionizm.com and is used by permission.
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