Benjamin Netanyahu has overcome the challenge. The fog has cleared in Israel and the uncertainty over the leadership of the ruling Likud party was over early on Friday. The bornagain Prime Minister has won a landslide victory within the party with the support of 72 per cent of members despite corruption indictments, compared with 28 per cent for his challenger, Gideon Saar.

After the recent general elections ~ the third this year ~ the party leadership was the other issue that had placed his prospects of becoming the Prime Minister ~ despite his frailties ~ under a cloud. Clearly, corruption at the highest level has failed to dent Netanyahu’s personal stakes. Having helmed Likud for the past 14 years, he has retained the famously loyal rightwing party’s leadership in the internal ballot. Israel as well as its ruling party will thus have to contend with corruption, however grudgingly, for sometime yet.

Netanyahu claimed victory shortly before the official result, which he has described as a “giant victory”. There was speculation in Jerusalem that Saar, his former protege turned rival, could dent the 70-year-old’s previously watertight Likud party support. However, he was unable to break through despite Netanyahu’s perceived weaknesses, most particularly the impending court cases. The Prime Minister failed to secure a clear win in two inconclusive elections this year.

However, a remarkable degree of clarity has marked the intra-party election. Amidst the inclement clime ~ roaring winds, heavy rain and the Jewish festival of Hanukkah ~ the political relief has been suitably refreshing. Gideon Saar, a former lawyer and journalist who has held several senior government positions, focused his campaign on the promise of being a more electable leader who can end the political deadlock that has plagued Israel.

He is sombre and staid compared with Netanyahu’s more energising, media-savvy style, and had hoped to sway voters nostalgic for a more restrained statesman, even if his position regarding the Palestinians is considered even more hawkish and nationalistic. While Netanyahu’s rivals outside his party focused on the bribery and fraud charges, Saar mostly ignored them on the campaign trail. It was seen as an attempt not to alienate Likud voters who believed the Prime Minister’s argument that the indictments were a media-led “witch-hunt” carried out by a fractured judiciary.

It is a measure of the chronic instability in Israel that on Wednesday evening, prior to Thursday’s election, Netanyahu was rushed off stage while campaigning in the southern city of Ashkelon after a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip. It was the second time this year he has had to take shelter at an event, which his rivals have attempted to use as an example of his failed security policies. Netanyahu has depleted his own inheritance.