Much can change between now and April 9. Mr. Netanyahu could well survive the election, and go on in July to become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, surpassing David Ben-Gurion, its founding statesman. He could even forge a right-wing coalition willing to let him stand trial in the morning and run the country in the afternoon — though the reaction to his recent alliance with a far-right, racist party in hopes of holding onto its sliver of the electorate suggests that this could come at great cost.
But what looked at first like a matchup of intramural athletes against a varsity star shifted sharply weeks ago into a competitive showdown between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gantz, who enticed two of his predecessors and a popular centrist politician, Yair Lapid, into a flag-waving, security-minded party aimed at Israel’s moderate middle.
Whether one sees a post-Netanyahu Israel as salutary or not, generally speaking, depends on one’s tribe.
Nowhere is Mr. Netanyahu more valued than on the right wing. His halting promotion of the settlement enterprise on the occupied West Bank has exasperated settlers and their supporters, but he is seen fundamentally as an ally, said Oded Revivi, mayor of Efrat and a spokesman for an umbrella group of settlements like it.
“Having been close to him, knowing from him what the pressures were, we can be grateful for what we’ve achieved the last 10 years,” Mr. Revivi said.
He would have no part of an after-Netanyahu conversation.
Hagai Segal, editor of Makor Rishon, a right-wing newspaper, said half-grudgingly that his esteem for Mr. Netanyahu had grown over the years. “We’ve had left-wing governments, and the sun shone the next day,” he said. “But there isn’t anyone to replace him. There is no heir who’d have Netanyahu’s stature, at least not anytime soon.”
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