With just 24 hours to go before Israel held its election last week, Benjamin Netanyahu reversed his position on the Palestinian two-state solution by promising it would never happen on his watch. He promised the continuing expansion of so-called settlements. And with these statements out in the open, and clearly enunciated for the electorate to chew on, Mr. Netanyahu's race to victory morphed into a spectacular sprint. He nearly doubled the number of seats in the Knesset for his party from the last election, and now that he occupies a quarter of the Parliament, he has brought his party to heights it has not seen for nearly 10 years.
Given the nature of Israeli politics, it was clear his words were subject to change, as we saw late last week when Mr. Netanyahu appeared to reverse his reversal in interviews with U.S. media. He is juggling conflicting opinions of potential coalition partners with the realities of having to heal the diplomatic wounds that still fester with the Obama administration. In the well-worn political world, it's a good rule to not believe everything you hear; believe, rather, everything you see.
Why did the electorate go for Mr. Netanyahu? After all, the Zionist Union party under Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni seemed to be breaking records themselves as they saw their numbers surge in a way that was not seen for years to the point that they prematurely celebrated victory, only to see Mr. Netanyahu pass by them, securing his fourth election victory, in the last hours of polling.
Political pundits will credit a number of issues, facts, details and their own inside wisdom for answers. But the truth is that Israel feels isolated and threatened. Iran continues to be the existential threat to Israel, which sees America and Europe caving in to Iran's lies and charm, leaving Israel as the picture in the sights of Iran's nuclear rockets. The BDS movement, which advocated boycotts, divestment or sanctions against Israel, delegitimized the country on college campuses and in the public arena causing greater strife and threats between Jews and non-Jews. And this, in turn, masks the greater levels of anti-Semitism and attacks Jews are facing all over Europe. In fact journalists go on their European beat wearing a skullcap just to see the kind of reaction they will get, and the picture is far from pretty. And don't forget, ISIS and Hamas and Hezbollah now surround Israel with terrorist armies and rockets, which is, in anyone's thinking, not a triumvirate you want to wake up worrying about every day.
And so, Israelis voted their fears. And when you're afraid, threatened, facing implacable enemies, you vote for who you believe poses the strongest statesman around; the individual who has been battle tested by Israeli politics and more than survived; the politician who has already proven himself to be able to stand up to leaders of all types and creeds and has even lectured Congress for a record three times. He knows that the peace process will never get anywhere; that has already been tried twice before by leaders Ehud Barak in 2001 and Ehud Olmert nine years later, and both times rejected by the Palestinians. So Mr. Netanyahu can safely divest himself from the attempt without political sacrifice, and add it back at will. And he also knows Israelis are moving toward the right and are sick and tired of wasting time and effort in pursuit of a vacuous goal which will only be thrown back in their faces once again.
Furthermore, Israelis view President Obama with much derision for failing to meet his own foreign policy goals; in fact, his is a policy in tatters. They have witnessed an American retrench in world involvement with the new goal of No Boots On The Ground anywhere and the drawings of red lines in the sand with Bashir Assad of Syria regarding his use of chemical weapons against his own people. And they watch the talks with Iran falter every day as America and Europe cave in to Iran's demands and charades.
So, in an atmosphere such as this, Mr. Netanyahu was able to successfully parade himself as the knight in shining armor who is the only one who can lead Israelis through these multi-level crises. He will, however, also have to turn inward as Israeli society faces exceptionally high levels of poverty; the gap between the haves and have-nots is frighteningly wide, and nearly a third of all Israeli children live below the poverty line. These are no less existential crises that have to be met head-on. Maybe Mr. Netanyahu can solve these problems too. After all, he is not known as the "magician" for nothing.
Chaim Landau is president of the Baltimore Board of Rabbis and Rabbi Emeritus of the Ner Tamid Congregation in Baltimore. His email isLand6@verizon.net.