Likud supporters celebrate victory, vow to back Netanyahu against judiciary

At Likud’s election-day headquarters in Tel Aviv, Ron Nava, a young man and resident of the city waving two large Likud flags, says he expects to wake up with the right-wing bloc having grown to 62 or even 63 seats, enjoying a comfortable majority.

“Then we’ll establish a strong right-wing government that will respect the Land of Israel. That’s the most important thing,” he says, adding that he is convinced that Netanyahu will fulfill his promise to apply Israeli sovereignty over large parts of the West Bank.

But he is also worried that the Supreme Court could rule that Netanyahu cannot form the next government due to the fact that he is a defendant in three corruption cases, he says. “The court is known to be anti-Israel, anti-Jewish and anti-religious, I think it’s almost certain that they would disqualify him,” he says.

What would happen then?

“Then we’d have to overturn the country,” he responds coolly. “We’ll have to take to the streets and turn everything on its head. We voted for Netanyahu. We didn’t vote for the Supreme Court.”

Chaya Shimoni, a woman in her 70s from Bat Yam, agrees with this sentiment. “My mother taught me that a man is innocent until he is sentenced and sent to prison,” she says as she wraps herself in an Israeli flag. “If the Supreme Court can do whatever it wants, we might as well close everything, the Knesset, the government, everything. That’s not democracy anymore.”

“We’ve had enough of this leftist mafia,” she adds.

— Raphael Ahren