Israel Election Netanyahu Eyes Comeback As Voters Go To The Polls In Fifth Election In Four Years

  Israelis head to the polls for an unprecedented fifth time in four years on Tuesday, as Israel holds yet another national election aimed at ending the country’s ongoing political stalemate.   

  For the first time in 13 years, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not running as an incumbent.  Bibi, as he is universally known in Israel, is hoping to return to power as head of a hard-right coalition, while centrist caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid hopes the mantle of acting prime minister will help him hold on to his position.   

  Netanyahu issued a stark warning as he cast his vote on Tuesday morning.   

  When asked by CNN about fears he would lead a far-right government if returned to power, Netanyahu responded with an apparent reference to the Ra’am party, which made history last year by becoming the first Arab party ever to join an Israeli government coalition.  .   

  “We don’t want a government with the Muslim Brotherhood, who support terrorism, deny the existence of Israel and are quite hostile to the United States.  This is what we will bring,” Netanyahu told CNN in English at his polling station in Jerusalem.   

  Lapid, who hopes he and his political allies will defy poll predictions and stay in power, voted in Tel Aviv on Tuesday with a message to voters: “Good morning, vote wisely.  Vote for the state of Israel, the future of our children and our future in general.”  The name of Lapid’s party, Yesh Atid, means “there is a future.”   

  The country was on track for its highest voter turnout in an election since 1999. Turnout was 47.5 percent by mid-afternoon, the Central Election Commission said, more than five points higher than it had been the same day moment in the last vote.   

  There was a strong push to get out of the vote before Tuesday, with Netanyahu invading the country in a converted truck turned into a bulletproof rig and Arab parties urging Arab citizens to vote to keep Netanyahu out.   

  However, if the final polls are on target, it seems unlikely that this round of voting will be more successful in eliminating the bloc than the last four.  Those polls predict that Netanyahu’s bloc will fall one seat short of a majority in parliament.   

  As in the previous four elections, Netanyahu himself – and the possibility of a government under his leadership – is one of the defining issues, especially as his corruption trial continues.  An Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) poll in August found that a quarter of respondents said the identity of the party leader they were voting for was the second most important factor in their vote.   

  But some leading center-right politicians, who agree with him ideologically, refuse to work with him for personal or political reasons.  So to make a comeback, Netanyahu, leader of the center-right Likud party, is likely to depend on the support of far-right parties to form a coalition – and if he succeeds, he may be forced to give their leaders ministerial posts.   

  Israelis are also very concerned about the cost of living, having seen their utility and grocery bills rise this year.  In the same IDI poll, 44% said their top priority was what a party’s economic plan would do to ease the cost of living.   

  And security, always a major issue in Israeli politics, is on voters’ minds – 2022 was the worst year for conflict deaths for both Israelis and Palestinians since 2015.   

  A recent compilation of opinion polls compiled by Haaretz shows that Netanyahu’s bloc of parties is likely to either exceed – or just reach – the 61 seats needed to form a majority in government, while Lapid’s bloc is about four short. with five seats.   

  According to pollsters Joshua Handman and Simon Davies, the final week of voting saw a slight uptick for Netanyahu’s bloc, showing it over the 61-seat threshold in six polls and trailing in nine.  The latest three polls published Friday by the three major Israeli news channels showed his bloc with 60 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.   

  Recognizing the need to win just one or two more seats, Netanyahu is focusing his campaign in places that are Likud strongholds.  Party officials have previously claimed that hundreds of thousands of potential Netanyahu voters did not vote.   

  Another important factor is the arrival of Arabs.  Citizens who identify as Arab and have national voting rights make up about 17% of the Israeli population, according to the IDI.  their involvement could make or break Netanyahu’s chances.  One of the parties, the United Arab List, has warned if Arab participation falls below 48%, some of the Arab parties may fail to pass the 3.25% vote threshold needed to win seats in parliament .   

  Along with rising grocery and utility bills and a near-impossible housing market, Tuesday’s vote comes amid an increasingly tense security environment.   

  Earlier this year, a wave of attacks targeting Israelis killed 19 people, including mass attacks targeting civilians in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities.  There has also been a surge in armed attacks on Israeli troops and civilian settlers by Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank this year, claiming the lives of several more soldiers and Israeli civilians.  According to the Israel Defense Forces, there have been at least 180 shooting incidents in Israel and the occupied territories this year, compared to 61 shooting attacks in 2021.   

  In the days leading up to election day, one Israeli was killed and several wounded in a shooting attack in the West Bank near Hebron.  The next day, several soldiers were injured in a car attack near the West Bank city of Jericho.  The Palestinian attackers were killed in both cases.   

  Attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank – and sometimes against Israeli soldiers – are also on the rise, according to the human rights group B’Tselem.   

  Almost daily Israeli security raids in West Bank cities have killed more than 130 Palestinians this year.  While the Israeli military says most were militants or Palestinians violently involved with them – including the fledgling “Lion’s Den” militia – unarmed and uninvolved civilians were also arrested.   

  The death of Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh in May while covering an Israeli military raid in the West Bank drew global attention.  After several months, the Israeli military admitted that it was probably its own soldiers who shot Abu Akleh – saying it was an accidental killing in the middle of a battle zone.   

  Palestinian disillusionment with their own leadership’s ability to confront Israeli occupation has led to a proliferation of these new militias — and fear among experts that a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising, is on the way.   

  There are 40 political parties on the ballot, although only about a dozen parties are expected to pass the threshold to sit in parliament.  Immediately after the polls close at 10 p.m.  local time (4 p.m. ET), the major media networks release exit polls that give the first glimpse of how the vote turned out – although the official vote tally can differ from the exit polls, often by small but critical amounts.   

  Only a dozen or so parties are expected to pass the minimum vote threshold required to join parliament.   

  Once the votes are officially tallied, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will give the order to form a government to the leader he deems most likely to succeed – even if he is not the leader of the largest party.   

  That candidate then has a total of 42 days to try to gather enough parties to reach the magic number of 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to form a majority government.  If they fail, the President can pass the mandate to another candidate.  If that person fails within 28 days, then the mandate goes back to parliament, which has 21 days to find a candidate, one last chance before new elections begin.  Lapid will remain as interim prime minister until a new government is formed.   

title: “Israel Election Netanyahu Eyes Comeback As Voters Go To The Polls In Fifth Election In Four Years " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-07” author: “Brandon Ortiz”

  Israelis head to the polls for an unprecedented fifth time in four years on Tuesday, as Israel holds yet another national election aimed at ending the country’s ongoing political stalemate.   

  For the first time in 13 years, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not running as an incumbent.  Bibi, as he is universally known in Israel, is hoping to return to power as head of a hard-right coalition, while centrist caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid hopes the mantle of acting prime minister will help him hold on to his position.   

  Netanyahu issued a stark warning as he cast his vote on Tuesday morning.   

  When asked by CNN about fears he would lead a far-right government if returned to power, Netanyahu responded with an apparent reference to the Ra’am party, which made history last year by becoming the first Arab party ever to join an Israeli government coalition.  .   

  “We don’t want a government with the Muslim Brotherhood, who support terrorism, deny the existence of Israel and are quite hostile to the United States.  This is what we will bring,” Netanyahu told CNN in English at his polling station in Jerusalem.   

  Lapid, who hopes he and his political allies will defy poll predictions and stay in power, voted in Tel Aviv on Tuesday with a message to voters: “Good morning, vote wisely.  Vote for the state of Israel, the future of our children and our future in general.”  The name of Lapid’s party, Yesh Atid, means “there is a future.”   

  The country was on track for its highest voter turnout in an election since 1999. Turnout was 47.5 percent by mid-afternoon, the Central Election Commission said, more than five points higher than it had been the same day moment in the last vote.   

  There was a strong push to get out of the vote before Tuesday, with Netanyahu invading the country in a converted truck turned into a bulletproof rig and Arab parties urging Arab citizens to vote to keep Netanyahu out.   

  However, if the final polls are on target, it seems unlikely that this round of voting will be more successful in eliminating the bloc than the last four.  Those polls predict that Netanyahu’s bloc will fall one seat short of a majority in parliament.   

  As in the previous four elections, Netanyahu himself – and the possibility of a government under his leadership – is one of the defining issues, especially as his corruption trial continues.  An Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) poll in August found that a quarter of respondents said the identity of the party leader they were voting for was the second most important factor in their vote.   

  But some leading center-right politicians, who agree with him ideologically, refuse to work with him for personal or political reasons.  So to make a comeback, Netanyahu, leader of the center-right Likud party, is likely to depend on the support of far-right parties to form a coalition – and if he succeeds, he may be forced to give their leaders ministerial posts.   

  Israelis are also very concerned about the cost of living, having seen their utility and grocery bills rise this year.  In the same IDI poll, 44% said their top priority was what a party’s economic plan would do to ease the cost of living.   

  And security, always a major issue in Israeli politics, is on voters’ minds – 2022 was the worst year for conflict deaths for both Israelis and Palestinians since 2015.   

  A recent compilation of opinion polls compiled by Haaretz shows that Netanyahu’s bloc of parties is likely to either exceed – or just reach – the 61 seats needed to form a majority in government, while Lapid’s bloc is about four short. with five seats.   

  According to pollsters Joshua Handman and Simon Davies, the final week of voting saw a slight uptick for Netanyahu’s bloc, showing it over the 61-seat threshold in six polls and trailing in nine.  The latest three polls published Friday by the three major Israeli news channels showed his bloc with 60 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.   

  Recognizing the need to win just one or two more seats, Netanyahu is focusing his campaign in places that are Likud strongholds.  Party officials have previously claimed that hundreds of thousands of potential Netanyahu voters did not vote.   

  Another important factor is the arrival of Arabs.  Citizens who identify as Arab and have national voting rights make up about 17% of the Israeli population, according to the IDI.  their involvement could make or break Netanyahu’s chances.  One of the parties, the United Arab List, has warned if Arab participation falls below 48%, some of the Arab parties may fail to pass the 3.25% vote threshold needed to win seats in parliament .   

  Along with rising grocery and utility bills and a near-impossible housing market, Tuesday’s vote comes amid an increasingly tense security environment.   

  Earlier this year, a wave of attacks targeting Israelis killed 19 people, including mass attacks targeting civilians in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities.  There has also been a surge in armed attacks on Israeli troops and civilian settlers by Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank this year, claiming the lives of several more soldiers and Israeli civilians.  According to the Israel Defense Forces, there have been at least 180 shooting incidents in Israel and the occupied territories this year, compared to 61 shooting attacks in 2021.   

  In the days leading up to election day, one Israeli was killed and several wounded in a shooting attack in the West Bank near Hebron.  The next day, several soldiers were injured in a car attack near the West Bank city of Jericho.  The Palestinian attackers were killed in both cases.   

  Attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank – and sometimes against Israeli soldiers – are also on the rise, according to the human rights group B’Tselem.   

  Almost daily Israeli security raids in West Bank cities have killed more than 130 Palestinians this year.  While the Israeli military says most were militants or Palestinians violently involved with them – including the fledgling “Lion’s Den” militia – unarmed and uninvolved civilians were also arrested.   

  The death of Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh in May while covering an Israeli military raid in the West Bank drew global attention.  After several months, the Israeli military admitted that it was probably its own soldiers who shot Abu Akleh – saying it was an accidental killing in the middle of a battle zone.   

  Palestinian disillusionment with their own leadership’s ability to confront Israeli occupation has led to a proliferation of these new militias — and fear among experts that a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising, is on the way.   

  There are 40 political parties on the ballot, although only about a dozen parties are expected to pass the threshold to sit in parliament.  Immediately after the polls close at 10 p.m.  local time (4 p.m. ET), the major media networks release exit polls that give the first glimpse of how the vote turned out – although the official vote tally can differ from the exit polls, often by small but critical amounts.   

  Only a dozen or so parties are expected to pass the minimum vote threshold required to join parliament.   

  Once the votes are officially tallied, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will give the order to form a government to the leader he deems most likely to succeed – even if he is not the leader of the largest party.   

  That candidate then has a total of 42 days to try to gather enough parties to reach the magic number of 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to form a majority government.  If they fail, the President can pass the mandate to another candidate.  If that person fails within 28 days, then the mandate goes back to parliament, which has 21 days to find a candidate, one last chance before new elections begin.  Lapid will remain as interim prime minister until a new government is formed.