Been Jamm'n?

[Stupid Robbings]

Netanyahu back from brink with dazzling election win; now two court battles loom
Likud leader utterly out-campaigned Blue and White head Gantz, reasserting his ‘King Bibi’ credentials. Will he prove as successful in the legal battles that lie ahead?

Assuming that Monday night’s TV exit polls are borne out as the actual results flow in over the coming hours, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who campaigned with a near-desperate vigor in recent weeks, has achieved an extraordinary victory in Israel’s third election inside a year.

Clinging to the premiership, on the brink of political oblivion after the last round less than six months ago, he has reestablished Likud as Israel’s biggest political party and boosted the bloc of parties he leads to an impregnable position.

Rather than his own position being under threat, it is his rival Benny Gantz, the Blue and White leader who has failed three times to defeat him, whose diverse alliance of anyone-but-Bibi parties could splinter and whose own political future is now in doubt.

Netanyahu’s victorious rebound is all the more remarkable because, in the interim since September’s elections â€" in which Blue and White outscored Likud, and Gantz passed up the opportunity to rotate the leadership of the country â€" the prime minister has been indicted in three criminal cases. His trial is due to start at Jerusalem District Court in just two weeks’ time. Self-evidently, this did not deter his voters.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-back-from-brink-with-dazzling-election-win-now-two-court-battles-loom/

[Stupid Robbings]

Exit polls: Netanyahu short of majority in Israel vote

JERUSALEM (AP) â€" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an edge over his main rival in Israel’s third election in under a year, exit polls indicated Monday night, but it was unclear whether he could clinch the parliamentary majority needed to claim victory.

Exit polls on Israel’s main TV channels showed Netanyahu and his nationalist and religious allies winning 59 seats, two short of a parliamentary majority. The center-left bloc, led by former military chief Benny Gantz, was projected to win 54 to 55 seats. Earlier projections had forecast 60 seats for Netanyahu and his allies, putting him on the cusp of victory.

https://apnews.com/1465b297a02795783f5d8927b7058c72