Middle East: Israel: Top 12 reasons Netanyahu will lose the upcoming early elections - by Chemi Shalev

The headline above is pure click-bait. In today’s Israel, forecasting the end of Netanyahu’s political career is so outlandish, it attracts attention. After all, we’ve been there and done that: Convinced ourselves that the signs point to a Netanyahu loss only to find out that the Israeli public didn’t see them and voted him into office. The collective memory holds that Netanyahu is perennially written off up until the polls close, at which time it turns out that news of his political demise was premature.

History, on the other hand, has a different version of events. No one can take from Netanyahu either his phenomenal rise from UN ambassador in 1988 to prime minister in 1996 or his lock-hold on power and trifecta of electoral victories since 2009. But Netanyahu is far from invincible: He lost badly to Ehud Barak in 1999, was trounced by Ariel Sharon in the Likud primaries in 2002 and was drubbed by Ehud Olmert and Kadima in the 2006 elections, in which his Likud mustered a measly 12 seats in the Knesset. So it can be done.

Now that we’ve established that a Netanyahu defeat is not a physical impossibility, we can approach the task at hand. His “Call me Mr. Security” address to the nation on Sunday night showed that despite his best efforts, Netanyahu realizes that his efforts to save his right wing coalition have failed. Elections are likely to be held within six months, probably at the end of March. 

Prudence and experience caution us to steer clear of firm assertions, so let’s just say that in the unlikely chance Netanyahu does fall in the elections, these will be the 12 cardinal reasons:

Read more at: Top 12 reasons Netanyahu will lose the upcoming early elections - Israel News - Haaretz.com