In this campaign, there were no rabbits pulled out of hats; the battle plan was carefully plotted from beginning to end
The Shabak personal security unit works like the American Secret Service. So on election night, the candidate who leads in the exit polls starts receiving protection early in the evening, as if he has already assumed office.
After a year of riding around in a slightly dinged Skoda Superb sedan, accompanied by a single security vehicle, last night opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu resumed his customary carriage, traveling on the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem Highway in a long motorcade. He received the results at the Carlton Hotel on the Tel Aviv shore, then rode to deliver his victory speech at Jerusalem’s Binyanei Ha’umah in a 12-vehicle convoy, with all the protection afforded to a sitting prime minister.
But before he departed, Netanyahu had spent nearly five hours in a closed room with his advisors — from 10 p.m., when the exit polls were announced, until 2:40 a.m., when he left Tel Aviv to close the night, and the campaign, with a victory speech.
During those moments, holding an espresso the way he likes it, in a glass cup, Netanyahu had time to do some thinking.
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