India, Oct. 25 -- In this election, several small parties are hovering around that perilous line. If they fail to cross it, their votes become irrelevant to the allocation of seats, shifting the coalition arithmetic overnight.

With just days to go before the October 27 vote, the man who has dominated Israeli politics for a generation is once again at the centre of the storm. But as Israelis prepare to head to the ballot box, the ground beneath Benjamin Netanyahu feels unusually shaky, even as the ideological drift of the electorate moves decisively to the right.

Let's start with the numbers, because they tell a fascinating story of a leader who remains simultaneously indispensable to his base and deeply vulnerable in the eyes of a weary...