The cleanest outcome, of course, would have been for
the anti-Netanyahu blocto win, say, 70 seats. Or 65. Or even just 61, the minimum needed for a majority in Israel’s 120-seat parliament. But that did not happen. It did not even come close. Which means the leaders of the bloc, who are expected today to get the first opportunity to try to form Israel’s next government, now face two choices: bring the ultra-Orthodox parties into the coalition and rely on outside support from the Arab parties, or return to the opposition benches. They can wrap themselves in the warm, comforting blanket of “we did not abandon our principles” and watch the other side make the decisions. Continue making the decisions.There are moments in politics when leaders have to decide what to do with their promises, declarations and carefully drawn red lines. Three things can be said about this moment. First, to be clear, this is not the hour for purists, nor is it the time for self-righteousness. There is great comfort in occupying the moral high ground, but as the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai wrote: “From the place where we are right, flowers will never grow in the spring. The place where we are right is hard an...