For the second Time this year, Israel elects a new Parliament. Prime Minister Netanyahu must win – or else a corruption charge he faces perhaps. According to the polls, his election victory anything but secure.
This Tuesday, Israel will vote again. Re-Election. In a small Park in Jerusalem, a group of assistants to the Blue-sitting for a couple of days before the election, party together-and-White. Time is running out, but you try to move as many Israelis to vote again for Benny Gantz to make. Not an easy task in a city, in the traditionally right-wing parties such as Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud or for the ultra-Orthodox parties will be voted.
“I think Bibi Netanyahu has done a lot of Good for our country, but after 13 years it needs a change,” says Yamit Avrahmu that will vote for Blue-and-White. “Benny will bring a new spirit of the times. Our country needs this.” In the last parliamentary election in April had proved to be the newly formed center-Right Parteials real political challenge for the Likud. And also this time the last polls before the election day in advance to say it again in a head-to-head race of the two major parties – with an uncertain outcome.
Political picnic – followers of Benny Gantz to discuss in a Jerusalem Park
“To Bibi or not to Bibi”
After the last election in April, the coalition had failed talks, after Avigdor had Lieberman out with his secular, right-wing party Israel Beiteinu with ultra-Orthodox coalition partners. Thus Benjamin Netanyahu’s ambitions, Israel’s were to be the senior Prime Minister, ended abruptly. For the time being. Because instead of the mandate to form a government return, had Netanyahu directed then new elections in the way. Now the Israelis need to go for the second Time within six months choose. Some observers describe the election as Netanyahu’s political Survival, because already in October, the first hearing is that the Premier is under suspicion of corruption. “It’s not really about any political issues. It’s rather like Shakespeare to Bibi or not to Bibi,” says Gil Hoffman, a Journalist for the Jerusalem Post. In addition, it is also about the future direction of policy. “In these elections, it is Netanyahu’s personality and his style of politics. It’s about the threat to democratic institutions, it is also a power-struggle over values: traditional versus liberal, secular versus religious,” says Tamir Sheafer, Dean at the Institute for social Sciences of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
“In another League”
For Nuriel Zarifi is no doubt that he votes again for the Likud, and thus Netanyahu a new mandate wants to give is. The owner of a small cafe in West Jerusalem, knows the Prime Minister personally: Sometimes, not only Netanyahu is coming over for a coffee and a quark bag. On the walls hang photos with the celebrity guest. “The man simply has a lot of experience. This is important for every citizen, especially in a country like Israel, with its many challenges. And he has the best relationships with foreign leaders such as Angela Merkel, Donald Trump, or Vladimir Putin. With him, we can sleep at night reassured,” says Zarifi.
Café owner Nuriel Zarifi also wants to vote again this time for Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s campaign portrays him as a statesman; as one who is able to weigh in on the Israeli citizens to safety. In the days before the election, he traveled to talks to London and met with Russian President Putin in Sochi. Large campaign posters of survival with the title “In another League” show him shaking hands with U.S. President Trump. Reports of possible direct talks between Iran and the US, throwing a shadow on his campaign. And it remains to be seen whether the election promises of Netanyahu will actually cause the rights of voters to vote more for the Likud than for smaller right-wing parties. Last week, Netanyahu made at least abroad a stir, as he promised the Israeli settlements in the Jordan valley, the “sovereignty” – if he is re-elected. This is a historic opportunity for Netanyahu, not least because the US government wants to publish its so-called middle East peace plan after the election. The annexation plans provoked fierce criticism from abroad. In Israel, Benny Gantz, the Netanyahu as a “weak Left hand” means, criticized the announcement as “empty election promises”. At the same time, he pointed out, had argued his party has always been, that the Jordan valley in the occupied territory “is forever a part of Israel.”
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Israel: the mood before the election
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Israel: picture of the mood before the election
“Netanyahu is happy to promise in this election everything is possible. The people here have handled it very cynical. Including the right-wing camp, the anyway are for the annexation. You say: He is since 13 years the Prime Minister. Why hasn’t he done that before? Why is it now, a week before the election, suddenly you have a historical opportunity?”, Haaretz Journalist Anshel Pfeffer describes the reactions in Israel.
Netanyahu’s political opponents from the center-left camp especially from the threat of corruption a campaign issue procedures. You accuse him of in return for loyalty to promises on the right to get the extreme politicians in the boat, to stay in Power. “The Israelis were a lot of long time victims of a corrupt government,” said Stav Shafir, a former member of the labour party and the current number two in the newly formed Democratic Union. It was necessary “to combat the right-wing camp, which is always radical, extreme, and racist,” says Shafir.
On election posters of the Likud Benjamin Netanyahu presented himself as a state man
Formation of a coalition – the power struggle the day after
The real power struggle begins, but probably only on the day after the election. Polls show different results on the question of what coalition government really want the voters. A recent Israel Democracy Institute survey revealed that 39% of Jewish Israelis want a kind of big coalition with Likud, and Blue-and-White as coalition partners. Another survey is 38 percent, which is a coalition of the right and ultra-prefer-Orthodox parties, and only 21% Know a great coalition of Likud and Blue. “In Israeli politics, anything is possible. Netanyahu says he wants to says a coalition of 61 Knesset members on the right end of the political spectrum”, Gil Hoffman of the Jerusalem Post. “This has less to do with ideology than with the fact that these 61 members would say that he does not have to resign if he is indicted.” Polls predict the right Block, although greater opportunities to form a coalition. But it could also be that neither Likud nor Blue-and-White can form a coalition. In this scenario, you could see the Likud will be forced to nominate a new party leader to remain in Power, so Hoffman. “The new party leader would have no problems to form a Grand coalition. All other parties have said that they would discuss with the Likud in a coalition, but without Netanyahu”.