Israelis began casting votes Tuesday after a bruising election campaign of clashing personalities that saw voters move away from anxieties about a nuclear Iran or terror groups to focus instead on domestic issues like rising grocery bills and soaring housing costs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cast his vote in Tuesday’s election. Netanyahu is facing a stiff challenge from Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog. (AP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking a historic fourth term in office, but he faces a surprisingly tough challenge from the head of the opposition, Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog.
The last round of opinion surveys on Friday showed Herzog and his running mate, former peace negotiator Tzipi Livni, with a slim lead.
Also on voters’ minds is the direction of Israel’s deep political and security connections to the United States.
While the ties remain a pillar for both countries, Netanyahu has stirred nearly unprecedented challenges to the White House by opposing U.S. attempts to reach a deal with Iran to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program.
A ultra-Orthodox Jewish man stands behind a voting booth at a polling station in Jerusalem on March 17. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
On Monday, Netanyahu raised the stakes in the confrontations with Washington by declaring there would be no chance of an independent Palestinian nation as long as he is prime minister. The two-state solution had been the basis of diplomatic efforts led by Secretary of State John F. Kerry.
Israel’s 5.9 million eligible voters can choose among a dozen parties — ranging from big, established groups to fringe factions — for the 20th Knesset, or parliament.
Election day is a national holiday in Israel and the polls stay open until 10 p.m. (4 p.m. EDT). After the votes are tallied, it can take weeks of wheeling and dealing for a governing coalition to be formed among the parties. Usually the party with the most votes is asked to form the coalition, but not always.
Herzog, casting his ballot in Tel Aviv, said “these elections are a decision between hope and change, and desperation and disappointment.”
After he voted in Jerusalem, Netanyahu promised he would not be part of a possible unity government formed by his Likud Party and Herzog’s Labor.
Netanyahu’s rejection of the Palestinian state, made on camera to an Israeli news Web site, appeared to reverse his previous declarations of support for a sovereign Palestinian state.
“I think that anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state today and evacuate lands is giving attack grounds to the radical Islam against the state of Israel,” he said in a video interview published Monday on the NRG site.
“Anyone who ignores this is sticking his head in the sand. The left does this time and time again,” Netanyahu said. “We are realistic and understand.”
Netanyahu was then asked specifically whether he meant that a Palestinian state would not be established if he were reelected prime minister. He answered: “Correct.”
In a speech at Bar-Ilan University in 2009, Netanyahu famously said that he supported a two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as long as Israeli conditions were met and Israel’s security was guaranteed. That speech and two rounds of U.S.-brokered peace talks since then led many to assume that the prime minister was prepared to see a Palestinian state arise in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“I have no doubt that Bibi will win today,” said voter Marcel Muallem, using Netanyahu’s common nickname.
“Only Bibi, when it comes to the issue of security he helps me sleep at night,” said Muallem, whose son was a soldier serving in Gaza during last summer’s 50-day war with Hamas. “Security is the main issue.”
Across the parking lot in Jerusalem, supporters of Herzog’s Zionist Union were giving out stickers and baseball caps.
“I am sure he is the right person, he will a bring a change to Israel, there is no doubt,” said Ilana Berkovitz. “Herzog is serious and trustworthy.”
First time voter, Itamar Binaymin Lapidot, 18, also said that he was throwing his support behind Herzog.
“I believe he has a good chance to change the country’s leadership, he’s a little bit weak but he is the best alternative to Bibi,” he said.
On Monday, Americans and Israelis were left unsure whether Netanyahu was just speaking off the cuff about Palestinians issues during an interview in the heat of a very close race or whether he was signaling a real change in policy.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to comment except to say, “There are many things said leading up to elections.’’ She added: “Obviously, our view continues to be that the only way to have peace and stability in the region is for there to be a two-state solution.”
Erel Margalit, an opposition leader in the Labor Party, called Netanyahu’s statements “outrageous.”
“It undermines the direction that Israel has declared it is striving for during the last three prime ministers,” Margalit told The Washington Post. “We need to build trust with the Palestinians again and make sure they do not continue with their unilateral steps.”
Saeb Erekat, who was the chief Palestinian negotiator during the Kerry peace talks, said he was not surprised to hear the remarks. “Netanyahu has done everything possible to bury the two-state solution,” he said. “This is not something new to us.”
Netanyahu’s words hit the Internet soon after the prime minister visited a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem on Monday and warned that if it were not for him and his right-wing Likud party, residents there would be next-door neighbors with the Islamist militant movement Hamas.
At an event in which journalists were not allowed to ask questions, Netanyahu stood at a lectern on the terrace of Yaron and Sigal Hakoshrein’s new condominium, framed by building cranes over his shoulder, towering above units under construction.
Netanyahu called his host to stand beside him and asked on camera, “Do you want to see ‘Hamastan’ over there on that mountaintop?” He then pointed in the general direction of Bethlehem, the Palestinian city in the West Bank where the Bible says Jesus was born.
Yaron Hakoshrein, a Likud activist, shook his head and said no.
“Then there is only one answer. Then you have to put the voting slip for Likud in the ballot box,” Netanyahu said.
The message was not subtle — but it sure was direct.
Israelis who fear that Hamas will take over the West Bank, as it did the Gaza Strip in 2007, have adopted the shorthand “Hamastan” to express that concern. Hamas is branded a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States. Israel and Hamas fought a 50-day war last summer.
Over the past days, Netanyahu has been working to bulk up support among members of his nationalist right-wing base, warning Israelis that his challengers would “give away land for peace” to the Palestinians, would divide the “eternal capital of Israel” and would turn over the eastern sections to the Palestinians for a future state.
Netanyahu has vowed “no concessions” and “no withdrawals” from the West Bank in speeches and statements during the campaign.
Over the past quarter-century, Israel and the Palestinians have engaged in many talks that failed to bear fruit. Kerry’s attempt collapsed last April, with each side blaming the other.
In a statement issued by his Likud party a week ago, Netanyahu was quoted as saying that his past support for an independent Palestinian state is now irrelevant.
“In the Mideast today, any evacuated territory will be overtaken by radical Islam and terror groups backed by Iran. Therefore, there will be no withdrawals and no concessions. It’s just not relevant,” the statement read, attributing the remark to Netanyahu.
Afterward, Netanyahu’s spokesman attempted to clarify matters by stating that the prime minister meant to say that “under current conditions in the Middle East, any land that is handed over would be grabbed by Islamist extremists.”
The Palestinian Authority under President Mahmoud Abbas, which oversees part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has vowed to pursue a path of nonviolence and has coordinated its security responsibilities with Israeli forces.
By William Booth and Ruth Eglash
sourche: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israelis-go-to-polls-as-netanyahu-faces-tough-re-election-race/2015/03/17/707ccf1e-cc13-11e4-8a46-b1dc9be5a8ff_story.html
William Booth is The Post’s Jerusalem bureau chief. He was previously bureau chief in Mexico, Los Angeles and Miami.
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