Israel

Barely a month ago, it would have been impossible for most Israelis to imagine a political landscape without Benjamin Netanyahu, the smart, savvy pol who has dominated the Israeli political stage for more than a decade.

Now, 72 percent of Israelis in a recent poll said they believe Israel needs a change in leadership. And those final polls (if they hold — a big if) suggest a lead big enough that it could give Bibi’s rival — the 54-year-old head of the Labor party, Isaac “Bougie” Herzog, son of Chaim Herzog, Israel’s sixth president — a chance to form the next government.

With the latest polls suggesting that momentum is shifting to Isaac Herzog, it appears that Israelis are beginning to imagine what a month ago was not imaginable: Life without Bibi.

But a fifth of voters say they are undecided, and the peculiarities of Israel’s electoral system suggest there’s little use in trying to call Tuesday’s elections. There are, however, some things worth thinking through as we ponder possible outcomes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s  unrelenting condemnation of the nuclear agreement being negotiated with Iran was received with ovations in Congress and by audiences at AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby. In Iran, however, the response has been more varied and more nuanced.

Tired of hearing about the Broken, Angry, Dysfunctional (BAD) Middle East? Exhausted by annoyingly negative analyses and news coverage generating the same old, same old, or worse? Persuaded that things can’t and won’t change for the better?

I can see why. The Carnegie Endowment recently asked its experts what region of the world would be home to the most “headline-making crises” in 2015? The answer? Seventy-five percent of those polled said the Middle East.