As Israelis head to polls, it’s all about Netanyahu
Tuesday’s PM race appears to be too close to call, polls show
JERUSALEM — Israel’s election campaign has been a threemonth roller coaster of mudslinging, scandals and more scandals. But when voters head to the polls Tuesday, one name will be predominantly on their minds: Benjamin Netanyahu.
At its core, the vote boils down to a referendum on Netanyahu, the man who has dominated Israeli politics for the better part of three decades. A victory will propel him into the record books later this year as the longestserving Israeli prime minister, surpassing founding father David Ben-Gurion.
A loss would likely end his career just as he is enjoying the limelight at the vanguard of a rising global movement of tough-talking, nationalist world leaders led by his close friend, President Donald Trump.
“Israel’s standing internationally has never been as solid as it is right now. International leaders are lining up to visit Israel and meet with the prime minister,” said Yechiel Leiter, a former Netanyahu chief of staff who is now a senior fellow at the Kohelet Policy Forum, a conservative Jerusalem think tank. “Everyone knows Bibi wherever you go.”
Netanyahu’s impassioned supporters revere him as largerthan-life “King Bibi,” friend of powerful world leaders and guarantor of Israel’s security in a tough neighborhood.
His opponents revile him as a corrupt hedonist who has divided the country by inciting against Arabs and whose policies toward the Palestinians are leading Israel off a cliff.
In the final days of the campaign, the race appears too close to call as Netanyahu, 69, faces a strong challenge from Benny Gantz, a popular former army chief.
Polls show Netanyahu’s Likud party and Gantz’s new Blue and White party neck and neck. The surveys give Likud a slight advantage in being able to put together a governing coalition with smaller, like-minded parties.
Netanyahu’s campaign has focused heavily on smearing opponents as weak “leftists,” routinely claiming they are conspiring with the country’s Arab parties against him. Opponents accuse him of incitement and demonizing Israel’s Arab minority, which makes up roughly 20 percent of the population.
It’s a formula that has worked before — and this time, he has an added Trump card.
Since taking office, Trump has given Netanyahu gift after gift, recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians.
All but endorsing Netanyahu, Trump hosted him at the White House last month and recognized Israel’s annexation of the occupied Golan Heights. Over the weekend, Netanyahu announced in a television interview that if re-elected, he would move to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a step that would likely erase the last hopes of a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu’s campaign videos show him hobnobbing with Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders of China, India, Africa and Latin America. Massive political billboards show him standing alongside Trump.
But this campaign is anything but usual.
Gantz, with two other former military chiefs on his ticket, is a rare candidate who has the credentials to challenge Netanyahu on security, always a central issue to voters.
He has derided Netanyahu’s failure to halt rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Yet Gantz’s main focus has been on Netanyahu himself, taking aim at the raft of corruption allegations against the prime minister.
Israel’s attorney general has recommended indicting Netanyahu on bribery and breach of trust charges.
“Enough already Bibi,” say Gantz’s campaign videos.
Gantz, 59, accuses Netanyahu of leading the country to “low and bad places. Israeli researchers’ recent discovery of a network of social media bots that promoted Likud messages and smeared Gantz has deepened the animosity.
The scandals seem to have had no effect on Netanyahu’s supporters.
But if the attorney general files formal charges after the election, the walls may close in on a newly re-elected Netanyahu.
Anshel Pfeffer, author of “Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu,” predicted a “major showdown” with the legal branch and said Netanyahu will search for a way to dismiss the charges or pass a law granting him immunity.
“We’re facing a constitutional crisis in the next few months in Israel,” he said.