Tuesday’s elections have turned into a plebiscite over the former prime minister, who plans to regain power, though the polls present an uphill battle to gain a majority in parliament
Israel returns to the polls this Tuesday in what will be its fifth election in less than four years. The Israeli election marathon began in 2019, the same year that Benyamin Netanyahu was charged with corruption. Since then, the longest-serving prime minister in the history of the Jewish state and the current head of the opposition has won post-election election but has been unable to add the 61 seats needed in parliament to form a government. to shape. Citizens are again divided between the pro- and anti-Netanyahu vote, so the nomination will be a plebiscite on the 73-year-old veteran leader, who seeks to regain his seat.
The studies again point to a scenario that is comparable to that of the previous processes. Netanyahu’s Likud will remain the most-voted force, although in the Chamber the bloc of ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox forces supporting the former prime minister would not achieve a clear majority. KAN’s public television poll shows the Netanyahu-led coalition with 60 seats and the alliance led by Prime Minister Yair Lapid with 56. The conservative daily poll ‘Israel Hayom’ gives Netanyahu’s bloc 61 seats and Channel 14 gives him 62 seats. -fought scenario reflecting strong divisions created by a former president who maintains a loyal base of voters unconcerned about his corruption process.
Lapid, leader of Yesh Atid (which can be translated as ‘There is a future’), will try to remain the head of government he has held since July 1 after the resignation of Naftali Bennet, who disappeared from the front line. The 58-year-old former television host has changed his journalistic tone to a more political one, consolidating the party he founded in 2012 as the second force in the country. The message he is trying to convey is that he is working against corruption and to improve the country’s economic situation, and one of his achievements is that he has been able to end Netanyahu’s 12-year term in office thanks to his alliance with Bennet.
Both led a coalition as broad as it was fragile, in which they broke the taboo of Arab support and counted on the Islamists of the United Arab List of Mansour Abbas. The illusion lasted less than a year, the defectors set in and instead of waiting for the opposition to oust them, they dissolved parliament and called elections this Tuesday.
Bennet and Lapid managed to achieve a majority in the House thanks to Abbas, and Netanyahu always accused them of collaborating with “terrorists.” In this election, polls indicate that the Arab parties will win eight seats, well below 15 in 2020. One of the reasons for this downturn is the division of the parties, which operate separately, and the disappointment of some voters who this time do not seem motivated to go to the polls. If this result is confirmed, it will be easier than expected for the Likud leader to add a majority that will bring him back to power. 24% of Israel’s population are Palestinians who were not ousted in 1948, but their vote had little weight until Abbas’s move to remove Netanyahu from power.
To regain the seat of prime minister, the Likud leader has allies such as Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the ultra-nationalist formation Jewish Power. In the middle of the campaign, Ben Gvir, a settler from Kiryat Arba, drew his gun against a group of Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, in the Arab sector of Jerusalem. Their message, clearly racist and violent, has been transcended, their ideology has been absorbed into the increasingly extremist line of religious ultranationalism, and they can become partners in Israel’s next government.
Netanyahu’s reliance on the far right and ultra-Orthodox will lead the country to “become a version of Iran,” analyst Dan Perry told The Jerusalem Post, lamenting that “Israel will become an authoritarian democracy akin to Hungary if Netanyahu wins the election. The answer will be known next Tuesday.
Source: La Verdad
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