In the end, the combined might of three former Israeli army chiefs proved no match for the political will of Benjamin Netanyahu.

A divisive force of nature who commandeered the airwaves, took over the vegetable markets, monopolized social media and even called potential voters out of the sea at Netanya beach on election day, Netanyahu simply refused to be beaten.

He had help. President Donald Trump gifted him the sensationally timed US recognition of Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights late last month, and the branding of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Force as a terror group this week. President Vladimir Putin pitched in with Russia’s return of the remains of Zachary Baumel, 37 years after the Brooklyn-born IDF tank commander’s death in the Lebanon War.

Read the full article at Haaretz.