Weary and divided, Israel goes back to polls

JERUSALEM — For the third time in under a year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking reelection, and once again the Israeli leader is on the ropes.

After two inconclusive elections last year, opinion polls forecast another stalemate — a troubling scenario for Netanyahu, who will go on trial on corruption charges just two weeks after Monday’s vote.

This election campaign has been especially tumultuous. President Donald Trump launched his long-awaited Mideast plan, a proposal that heavily favored Israel and was seen as an election gift to Netanyahu. The Israeli leader, meanwhile, was forced to drop his bid for immunity from prosecution, and just a week ago, Israel battled Gaza militants in a two-day round of fighting.

Monday’s election is seen as another referendum on Netanyahu, the country’s longest serving prime minister. And once again, the country seems hopelessly divided.

With boundless energy, the 70-year-old Netanyahu has taken to the airwaves and hit the campaign trail, presenting himself to adoring audiences as a global statesman uniquely qualified to lead the country through its many complicated challenges. In recent weeks, he jetted from the White House to Moscow to bring home a young Israeli woman jailed there on drug charges, and flew to Uganda for a surprise meeting with a leader of Sudan, a longtime enemy country.

“We have turned Israel into a world power, a leader in cyber technology, natural gas, water, agriculture, technology, intelligence,” Netanyahu boasted at a recent campaign stop.

He claims credit for a strong economy and boasts of his close relationships with world leaders, first and foremost Trump, while deriding opponent Benny Gantz as a lightweight. In a message that has drawn accusations of racism, he also accuses Gantz of plotting with Arab lawmakers to oust him. In recent days, Netanyahu and his Likud surrogates spread unfounded allegations claiming his opponent is corrupt, unstable and susceptible to blackmail by Iran.

“Being prime minister of Israel is a complicated thing, full of pressures 24 hours a day,” Netanyahu added. “I don’t think Benny Gantz can handle it.”

Gantz, a former military chief of staff, has focused his campaign on Netanyahu’s character, saying a man accused of serious crimes is unfit to lead. He has painted Netanyahu as an out-of-touch egomaniac obsessed with remaining in power and escaping justice, while portraying himself as a moderate alternative to the polarizing prime minister.

“Netanyahu, look me in the eye. Because of your obsession with evading trial, you’re lying, attacking, dividing, mudslinging, spreading malicious rumors and inciting. Netanyahu, you’re poisoning Israel,” Gantz said last week. “You’ve lost it, and you’re unworthy of being prime minister for even a single day longer.”

Weekend polls, the last to be published before the vote, showed Gantz’s Blue and White and Netanyahu’s Likud party in a tight race, though Gantz’s party has shown some small signs of slippage over the past week. Even so, the polls forecast both parties and their smaller partners will again fall short of securing the 61-seat majority in parliament required to form a government.

The easiest way out of the deadlock would be a unity government between the two parties, which together are expected to control a solid majority in the 120-seat parliament.

But Gantz says he will only form a partnership with Likud if Netanyahu steps down. Netanyahu insists he remain prime minister in any unity deal.

The deadlock has raised the possibility of a fourth election in quick succession.