On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu won an overwhelming vote of confidence from members of his Likud party, as he decisively won 72% of the vote in the Likud party primary and rival candidate Gideon Saar won 28% of the vote.
On Friday morning, as Israel National News reported, Netanyahu celebrated his victory, stating:
Yesterday I received a renewed and powerful mandate from the Likud. Now is the time to unite to bring about a landslide victory for the Likud and the right in elections. The final and sweeping decision in the primaries was an expression of great faith in my path and in our path. Most of the nation supports the right, and most of the nation supports me as prime minister. This is a great victory, because we were victorious over the weather. We were also victorious over those who spread fake news, who are already trying to downplay the victory. This is a great victory because almost all media outlets joined together against me.
Netanyahu added, “Last night, we proved that we are able to win big, and we will win big because of the amazing achievements we will yet bring the State of Israel. In the coming years, I will bring more historical achievements — American recognition of sovereignty applied to the Jordan Valley, northern Dead Sea area, and all the towns in Judea and Samaria. [There will be] the historic defense treaty with the U.S., to put a final stop to Iran, bring about a normalization of relations, treaties, and later, peace treaties with our neighbors.
By winning the primary, Netanyahu could form a new government after the March election, which would be Israel’s third in less than a year.
Saar congratulated Netanyahu, adding he would support him in the national election. He wrote, “I am absolutely comfortable with my decision to run. Whoever isn’t ready to take a risk for the path he believes in will never win.”
Netanyahu has been a fixture in Israel for decades; the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history, he is the first to be born in Israel after the establishment of the state. Netanyahu was a leader in Israel’s special forces unit; fought in several of Israel’s wars, and led a commando assault deep into Syrian territory. He obtained Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from prestigious MIT in Cambridge, MA.
Netanyahu’s stewardship of Israel during his second term as prime minister, which began in 2009, (his first occurred during 1996-1999) displayed his skill, as he had to deal with an overtly anti-Israel Obama administration. As Jackson Diehl noted in The Washington Post of Netanyahu’s meeting in 2010 with Barack Obama:
Obama has added more poison to a U.S.-Israeli relationship that already was at its lowest point in two decades. Tuesday night the White House refused to allow non-official photographers record the president’s meeting with Netanyahu; no statement was issued afterward. Netanyahu is being treated as if he were an unsavory Third World dictator, needed for strategic reasons but conspicuously held at arms length … A new administration can be excused for making such a mistake in the treacherous and complex theater of Middle East diplomacy. That’s why Obama was given a pass by many when he made exactly the same mistake last year. The second time around, the president doesn’t look naive. He appears ideological — and vindictive.
Additionally, Obama emboldened the Iranian theocratic regime, which has said it will destroy Israel, with the Iran nuclear deal, was accused of trying to interfere in the Israeli electoral process in order to remove Netanyahu in 2015, and just before Obama left office, his administration refused to veto a U.N. resolution denying the Jewish connection to the holiest spot on earth for Jews: the Temple Mount.