Israeli Prime Minister and Likud party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the media after casting his ballot in Israel’s general elections at a polling station in Jerusalem, October 27, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
It’s now Wednesday, October 28, and 30 years after Israelis went to sleep with Shimon Peres and were surprised to wake up beside Benjamin Netanyahu, they went to sleep with Gadi Eisenkot and are likely to find Bibi cuddled up beside them once again. Despite early predictions of an opposition plurality, Netanyahu’s bloc stands at 52 seats to the change bloc’s 49: a lead, but nine seats short of a majority.
It appears that seven years after the question was first asked in earnest, Israelis have not changed their answer to “Bibi or no Bibi?” Half instantly answer yes, the other half an emphatic no. Despite October 7, two still-inconclusive wars with Iran and Haredi riots, the man who has stood astride Israeli politics since 2009 has not lost his footing.