JERUSALEM — What does Benjamin Netanyahu have to do to get defeated?

Two weeks before his trial on bribery and other serious corruption charges, it might have been reasonable to expect Israel’s embattled prime minister to struggle merely to avoid disaster in Israel’s parliamentary election on Monday.

His chief rival, Benny Gantz, nearly defeated him twice last year, before Mr. Netanyahu had even been indicted.

But Mr. Netanyahu’s relationship with his fervent political base — Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent — may be even stronger than Donald Trump’s support from white working-class Americans.

Thanks to them, Mr. Netanyahu — Bibi, as he is known to Israelis — seems unsinkable.

He won a plurality in Monday’s vote, according to still-incomplete returns, giving him a decent shot at forming a government and earning a record fifth term. He clobbered Mr. Gantz, and his conservative Likud party won some 175,000 more voters than it did in September’s election, analysts said.