Can Bibi foil Barak's bid to block him?

摘要

When Israel's hard-pressed prime minister, Ehud Barak, announced his resignation on December 9th, it was all too plain that this was a desperate bid to block the right's resurgent leader, Binyamin Netanyahu, from running against him. But his ploy backfired. Mr Netanyahu seems set to recapture the leadership of the Likud opposition in a primary election on December 19th. He will then confront Mr Barak for the prime-ministership in February. According to the opinion polls, Mr Netanyahu will trounce Mr Barak, who only 19 months ago defeated him by a comfortable 12%. Under Israeli law, Mr Barak's resignation means new elections, within 60 days, for prime minister but not for the Knesset, which continues its term. The law restricts special prime-ministerial races to sitting members of the Knesset, and Mr Netanyahu, who resigned after his defeat, would have found himself barred.