Netanyahu Uses Trump's Playbook in Leadership Challenge
BOLDUAN: Israel's longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is right now trying to survive a leadership challenge within his own party in the runup to a third national election in just 12 months. He's borrowing from a familiar playbook. Oren Liebermann has more.</s>OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is becoming a familiar image among friends, a black and white picture of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointing at the camera. The caption says, they're not only after me, they're after us. It's copied from President Donald Trump, who used a similar image with a similar message days earlier. The well-documented political bromance has been a focus of Netanyahu's messaging featuring heavily in election campaigns. On Christmas Eve --</s>BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Merry Christmas to all our Christian friends.</s>LIEBERMANN: -- Netanyahu promising another political gift from the Trump administration.</s>NETANYAHU (through translation): We are going to bring American recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the Jordan Valley. And pay attention in all of the settlements, those in the blocks and those that are not.</s>LIEBERMANN: Netanyahu and Trump share much more than style. As Trump faces impeachment, Netanyahu faces criminal indictment, charges of bribery and fraud and breach of trust in three corruption investigations. Netanyahu has insisted he's innocent, calling the charges an attempted coup and a media driven witch hunt.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I called it the rigged witch hunt.</s>LIEBERMANN: Language we've heard from Trump as well. In messages like this, Netanyahu has painted himself as the victim, while leaning once again on his relationship with Trump to boost his standing. But Trump borrowed this one.</s>TRUMP: I want to especially thank a great man and a great leader, the leader of India, Prime Minister Modi, my friend.</s>LIEBERMANN: It was with another populist leader, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that we first saw the message.</s>NARENDRA MODI, INDIA PRIME MINISTER: Our great American president, Mr. Donald Trump.</s>LIEBERMANN: Modi's supporters created and spread a meme, a picture of the Hindu leader with the words, "In reality, they're not after me, they're after you. I'm just in the way." With his India First style of politics, Modi has celebrated Trump's America First brand.</s>MODI: A belief in American future, and a strong resolve to Make America Great Again.</s>LIEBERMANN: Modi has also shown his love for Netanyahu. In 2017, becoming the first sitting Indian prime minister to visit Jerusalem. While Modi isn't facing any personal corruption scandals, his government has been facing massive protests after the passage of a controversial immigration law that critics say discriminates against Muslims. That's three nationalist leaders united by a love of brash tactics and strong-man strategies. For Modi and Trump, this style of campaigning worked. It's less clear with Netanyahu, who faces a third-straight election within 12 months, having already failed the former government twice.</s>LIEBERMANN: There's just about four and a half hours left in voting for the Likud leadership race. Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn't want to just win this. He wants to win it big. If it's something like 80/20 or 70/30, that assures that Netanyahu remains not only in control of his own party but the leader of Israel's right wing. If this is a close race, 60/40 or 55/45, it's a signal that Netanyahu's base is shifting away from him and moving in a different direction. Of course, Kate, the big shocker here, which is considered improbable, though not impossible, is if his rival, Gideon Saar, pulls it off and beats Netanyahu, and that means it's effectively the end of Netanyahu's time as Israel's leader.</s>BOLDUAN: So hard to follow it all. So glad that you're there, Oren, to do it for us. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Coming up for us, from backlash against Boing to a failed attempt to go public for WeWork, it was a rocky year for CEOs. What is the impact of the great CEO exodus?