Netanyahu's Political Future Hangs in the Balance After Embarrassing Defeat.

Wednesday’s Knesset vote to place lawmakers on the panel that selects Israel’s judges was one of the most charged and bizarre in the six months in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition has been in power. Although not a situation of his own making, Netanyahu took the cards that he was dealt and found a way to play them in his favor. The vote’s outcome, as well as the opposition’s reaction to it, may ultimately prove to give the premier cover to advance enough changes to sell “reform” to the streets, but on subjects skirting the core of the concerns of the opposition and protest movement — and possibly the worst of their ire.