From jitters to jubilation, Likud backers go through roller-coaster night

The mood of Likud supporters gathered at Tel Aviv’s Kvuzat Shlomo event hall Tuesday night underwent a remarkable transformation as they awaited election results, Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. It shifted from upbeat optimism, to sudden anxiety and through uncertainty, before settling on relief and then jubilation when it became clear that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was well on his way to securing his fifth term as prime minister.

For days, Netanyahu and other Likud campaigners had pushed the message that the party could be headed for a loss to Benny Gantz’s Blue and White. Some surmised that the campaign was an alarmist ploy meant to siphon off votes from other right-wing parties and push Likud voters to the polling stations, while others feared that the prime minister’s decade in power could actually come to an end.

Arriving at the hall on Tuesday afternoon, it was still entirely unclear whether Netanyahu would actually clinch victory. He was still busy rallying right-wing voters, urging them to go vote lest his right-wing government fall.

At around 6 p.m., technicians tested fireworks on the stage where Netanyahu was to appear later, but given the prime minister’s ongoing “gevalt” campaign, early arrivals might have wondered why his people were preparing for a victory party.

In the minutes before Israel’s three major television networks published their exit polls, some in the hall really started worrying.

Amir Ohana, the first Likud MK to arrive, said that he had been “very optimistic” but there were now “rumors” going around that “are not good.”

Some 20 minutes later, at 10 p.m., the three main TV exit polls showed Likud with between 33 and 36 seats, compared to Gantz’s 36-37 seats — though Netanyahu remained better positioned to cobble together a coalition with other right-wing parties.

The response in the hall was muted. It may not have been the clear-cut victory they had hoped for. But if activists were dismayed by their showing compared to Blue and White, they made an effort not to show it.

“I feel excellent,” said Racheli Ben Ari-Sakat, who heads Likud’s Ra’anana branch. “I am not at all disappointed. I always believed we could do better than the polls predicted.”

Almost all Likud activists who had gathered in the hall echoed the sentiment at that stage, but the mood remained subdued for a while longer, especially when compared to Likud election night events in previous votes.

While in 2015 and 2013, large, flag-waving crowds broke out into loud cheers when exit polls were aired, on Tuesday night there was hardly any such celebration when the projected results were announced.

Music played on in the near-empty hall, even as the poll results were read out. Two minutes later, a lone Likud activist started cheers of “Bibi, Bibi,” but since no one joined him he stopped after a few moments. “Guys, this is only an exit poll,” he shouted to television crews that approached him. “In 1996, we went to sleep with [Shimon] Peres, and woke up with Netanyahu.”

A few minutes later, a staffer for a backbencher Likud MK was spotted trotting around with a rolled-up Likud flag in his hands. “I don’t feel like waving it, that’s the problem,” he told this reporter.

Even as the clock moved toward 1 a.m., and updated poll numbers and actual results showed Likud’s position improving, the mood remained rather morose.

In the interim, some were still saying things had not gone exactly as they had hoped. “I’m emotional. Waiting for good news,” said Yael Weissman from the Tel Aviv suburb Givatayim. “I do believe that in the end Netanyahu will be prime minister. If not, all of Israel loses out. He was the best leader this country ever had.”

Settler activist Elie Pieprz, from the West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron, acknowledged that, “It’s a bit underwhelming, compared to last time.” Still, if Likud ended up with 33 seats or above, as the exit polls were showing, it would be the party’s best performance since 2003, when the party won 38 seats under Ariel Sharon, he noted.

The reason for the subdued mood in the hall was not the unclear election result, but a poorly run Likud campaign, Pieprz posited. “There was a lack of enthusiasm throughout the entire campaign,” he said. “What also happened is that the left imploded, and we were left with the right, and a center party. And Likud needed to do a better job to challenge Gantz. But Gantz wasn’t drawn in. He didn’t say all that much during the campaign, not giving Netanyahu much to attack him for. I guess that was a smart move on his part.”

Even when Netanyahu was said to finally be starting his journey to the event hall from his Jerusalem residence, party music blared ever louder through the speakers and two elderly men with guitars offered songs of praise to the party leader, there was still a lack of enthusiasm in the room.

But as the prime minister’s motorcade drew closer, more and more Likud and Israel flags could be spotted (one person waved a flag emblazoned with US President Donald Trump’s name and his slogan “Make America Great Again”), and some people started dancing and singing “Bibi, king of Israel.”

Most activists were now insisting that they were more than pleased with the election results; the Channel 12 poll that gave Gantz the best showing had gradually been internalized as likely to be wrong, and the Channel 13 and Kan surveys, showing Netanyahu potentially well able to build a coalition, were being recognized as probably more accurate.

“Wonderful,” replied Tel Aviv resident Moshe Levy, when asked about his feelings. “The final results will be even better. The real results are always better for us than the exit polls.”

Finally, at about 1:30 a.m., as Netanyahu’s spokesman sent out videos showing him well on his way to Tel Aviv, the television stations revised their exit polls again, now pointing to a clear Likud victory. The atmosphere in the hall shifted dramatically.

And a real party started as Netanyahu finally entered the hall, at exactly 2:01 a.m.

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With projections now showing the prime minister — after a bruising campaign and facing likely charges in three corruption probes — maintaining and even growing Likud’s power in the Knesset, even Netanyahu appeared somewhat overwhelmed.

“This is a night of an incredible, incredible victory,” he told a cheering, enraptured audience. “When did we receive so many seats? I don’t even remember.”

It was “a great victory, almost impossible to grasp,” Netanyahu said.

As he waved to the crowd, now thoroughly jubilant, that fireworks display exploded behind him in celebration… exactly as planned from the start.