Netanyahu wins primary in Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bested challenger Gideon Sa’ar by a landslide in his party’s primary election on Thursday. Sa’ar, a Likud lawmaker, argued he had a better chance of forming a new government after the parliamentary election coming up in March.

What will this mean for Israel? Netanyahu won 72 percent of the vote, giving him momentum heading into what will be the country’s third parliamentary election in the past 12 months. But the prime minister has already tried and failed to form a coalition government twice after falling short of a majority in parliament in the last two elections.

Dig deeper: Read Mindy Belz’s analysis of how Netanyahu leveraged the Golan Heights to pick up more votes in the last election.