On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won re-election according to the latest vote counts, defeating not just his domestic leftist opposition, but the President of the United States in a public stand-off that had the President sending emissaries to Israel to try and oust Netanyahu. The victory represented a stunning turnaround for Netanyahu, whose Likud Party trailed significantly in the polls in the days leading up to the election.
How Netanyahu shifted the narrative in Israel makes for a compelling political case study in principle over prevarication. Netanyahu overcame a highly-publicized domestic scandal involving allegedly ordering some $2,700 worth of ice cream to the official residence, and exceeding his household budget by approximately a million shekel. He overcame inflation against the dollar that jacked up prices of goods in the weeks leading up to the election, and inflated real estate prices over the course of the last six years. He overcame foreign money injected into the campaign.
How? He employed five key tactics — tactics from which American conservatives could learn:
Build Around a Personality. Netanyahu’s speech before Congress was the latest indicator that he was a world leader ready to face down the most powerful people in the world, including Iran and its new friends in the Obama administration. While many Israelis said they didn’t want Netanyahu as prime minister, they
preferred him over his rivals in every poll for months before the election by a wide margin. In the late days of the campaign, Netanyahu campaigned openly on the idea that conservatives ought to vote for his party in order to elevate him personally. By positioning himself as a major international presence, Netanyahu placed himself in admirable political position. There is danger to this strategy: it allows the opposition to focus on you personally. But voters vote for people, not for ideas.
Don’t Back Down From A Fight. Netanyahu’s U.S. ambassador, Ron Dermer, knew that Netanyahu was dramatically at odds with President Obama over Obama’s pending nuclear arms deal with Iran. When Dermer negotiated an appearance by Netanyahu before a joint session of Congress with Speaker of the House John Boehner, and Obama retaliated by refusing to see Netanyahu, Netanyahu did not apologize or back down. Instead, he silently embraced the face-off with President Obama, who foolishly elevated Netanyahu by using the media to slam Netanyahu repeatedly. Netanyahu, meanwhile, steadfastly stated that he would use any opportunity, particularly one before the most powerful legislature in the world, to lay out the case against a “bad deal” with Iran. The American media went berserk; the Israeli left media went insane, suggesting that Netanyahu had permanently damaged Israeli-American relations. The
polls stated that the speech could actually hurt Netanyahu domestically. Netanyahu went anyway. The result: a
boost in the polls and a decline for Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog.
John Dodge
