London: The first and most immediate takeaway from Benjamin Netanyahu’s surprise victory is perhaps the least surprising.

Netanyahu, who was nicknamed “Bibi the magician” in the 1990s for his formidable electoral skills, not only knew what buttons to push to secure re-election but did so shamelessly, playing on the anxieties of the Israeli right.

Conspiratorial, at times smacking of racism when he spoke of droves of Arab citizens of Israel being bussed to polling stations, and playing on the notion of the right as the victim of an alliance of the left and unnamed foreign powers, it was an appeal both demagogic and pitched to be alarmist.

The result, however, also confirms a truism about Israel’s drift to the right in recent years which has seen successive Labour leaders — including Isaac Herzog, even in an electoral alliance with former justice minister Tzipi Livni — fail to defeat a succession of rightwing-led governments.

Paradoxically, however, the result also reveals an Israel implacably divided.

Herzog’s still strong showing in defeat, not least when put next to the seats won by the new Joint Arab Israeli List, point to a large constituency in Israel opposed to all that Netanyahu and the right stand for.

Netanyahu might head up the next government but even he must know that he is not a leader of all of Israel as he has tried to claim.

That will increase pressure on him to persuade Moshe Kahlon, the former Likud minister turned leader of the centrist Kulanu party who campaigned on socioeconomic issues, to join his coalition.

What seems certain is that at the end of a tense and difficult year which saw war in Gaza, widespread unrest in occupied east Jerusalem and Israel’s increasing isolation on the international stage — including in its relations with the US — the country faces a febrile and tense period ahead.

With no peace process with the Palestinians — which collapsed a year ago — it will be difficult for Netanyahu to disavow his remarks in recent days promising he would not allow the creation of a Palestinian state, comments that will set him on a further collision course with the US administration of Barack Obama and the EU.

In the immediate future, Palestinian leaders have made clear they plan to go with a raft of cases against Israel to the international criminal court. With Israel already blocking tax receipts to the Palestinian National Authority for formally joining the international court of last resort, that move would trigger US Congress to order the freezing of US aid to the authority, a large part of which goes to supporting security forces.

Another potential consequence may be a renewed effort by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to seek recognition for a Palestinian state at the UN security council, a move which was blocked last year.

Without any commitment to a two-state solution and Netanyahu’s boast that he will continue building in occupied east Jerusalem, an already existing frustration with Israel is likely to increase.

That may in turn see increased pressure — not least from Europe — for moves towards sanctions against Israel.