Then again, it’s also a country that knows how to find its feet.

That starts with the rebuke Tuesday’s results represent for Netanyahu. On paper, Netanyahu lost four seats since April’s election. The real number is closer to eight, since in the interim Likud merged with a small sister party. “Bibi, King of Israel,” who was expected to rule indefinitely, has been cut down to size.

That’s good news for anyone alarmed by the turn of Netanyahu’s politics in recent years from conservative pragmatist to political desperado .

In recent months, Netanyahu has courted far-right votes by signaling his willingness to sit in coalition with a racist party with a terrorist past, courted settler votes by promising to annex large chunks of the West Bank, and infuriated Democratic lawmakers by bending to Donald Trump’s demand to bar Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from visiting Israel. More outrageously, he tried to garner votes by ordering a major military operation in Gaza on the eve of the election — an operation his military chiefs and attorney general scotched.

None of it worked. Israeli voters recoiled at the shameless pandering, the ignoble kowtowing, the self-serving recklessness. In an age of demagogues, Israelis showed that demagogy doesn’t work.

Then there’s the success of Blue and White, which proves there’s a future for democratic centrism after all.

Gantz is a neophyte politician with the quiet charisma that comes with inner composure; the quality — so rare in modern politics — of not being perpetually frantic. He projects confidence without fanaticism. The far-right detests him because he appreciates the long-term necessity of separating from the Palestinians. The far-left dislikes him because he’s under no illusions about Israel’s enemies and understands the necessity of possessing and, when necessary, using force.

He seeks stable balances, not permanent solutions. He’s sane.

Finally, there is the breadth and vitality of Israeli democracy. In 2015, Netanyahu infamously warned that Israeli-Arabs were voting “in droves.” In 2019, Israeli-Arabs proved him right with a turnout of around 60 percent. Ultra-Orthodox turnout was also very high — but, significantly, an ultra-Orthodox woman, Omer Yankelevich, was re-elected on the Blue and White list.