Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas try to hold on to power

BINYAMIN NETANYAHU and Mahmoud Abbas (pictured, right and left) have ruled for so long that it is hard to imagine other people in their places. Yet neither is looking very secure at the moment. Mr Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel since 2009, is struggling to form a new government, as the opposition inches closer to a deal that would unseat him. Mr Abbas, the Palestinian president since 2005, is increasingly unpopular. Were he to hold a free and fair election, as he promised to do this year, he would probably lose. Could both men soon be out of a job?Neither is giving up. Consider Mr Netanyahu, whose party, Likud, won the most seats in an election on March 23rd, but whose right-wing coalition lacks a majority in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. For the past three weeks he has tried—and failed—to convince other parties to support his bloc. Mr Netanyahu even reached out (via intermediaries) to Ra’am, an Islamist party. His main target, though, has been Naftali Bennett, the leader of Yamina, a nationalist party that is similar to Likud. Mr Bennett, who was once Mr Netanyahu’s chief of staff, says “the door to a right-wing government is open.”