Netanyahu in anti-Palestinian pledge as polls open in Israel
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ISRAELIS were voting in parliament elections yesterday after a heated three-month campaign that focused on economic issues but ended with a dramatic last-minute pledge by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu’s comments marked a reversal of long-standing promises to the United States and were seen as a last-ditch effort to appeal to hard-line voters as he fights for his political survival in a tight race.
Some 5.8 million people are eligible to vote in the election for Israel’s 20th Knesset, or parliament, which has 120 seats.
Voters had until 4am today (Beijing time) to cast their ballots and three hours after the polls opened, turnout stood at 13.7 percent. Exit polls giving the first indications of the outcome were to be published just minutes after polling stations closed.
Polls have indicated Netanyahu’s Likud Party is trailing slightly behind his centrist challenger, Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union, who supports peace efforts with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu’s opposition
Netanyahu told Israel TV’s Channel 10 that if a Palestinian state is established alongside Israel it would be controlled by Islamic extremists who “will attack us with rockets.”
“Who wants such a thing?” Netanyahu said after casting his ballot. He has repeatedly voiced his opposition to a Palestinian state in recent days.
Herzog has promised to revive peace efforts with the Palestinians, repair ties with the US and reduce the growing gap between rich and poor. “Whoever wants to follow (Netanyahu’s) path of despair and disappointment will vote for him,” Herzog said after voting. “But whoever wants change, hope, and really a better future for Israel, will vote for the Zionist Union led by me.”
Election day is a holiday in Israel. Most people don’t go to work, beaches and restaurants fill up, and stores advertise election-day sales.
Facebook featured a special “I voted” button in Hebrew in an effort to get out the vote.
Meanwhile, police said they arrested an Israeli soldier on suspicion of incitement of violence. The soldier wrote on Facebook that if a leftist were to rise to power, the soldier would follow in the footsteps of Israeli extremist Yigal Amir, who assassinated dovish Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.
Israelis are voting for a 120-member parliament, casting ballots for a party list, rather than individual candidates. No party has ever won a majority, so after an election it typically takes weeks of negotiation to form a governing coalition.
Several smaller centrist and religious parties that have not pledged support to either Netanyahu or Herzog will likely tip the scales to determine who becomes prime minister.
Netanyahu has governed for the past six years and has long been the most dominant personality in Israeli politics.
He has swung further to the right in the final stages of the campaign, complaining of an international conspiracy funded by foreigners to oust him, and warning of a “left-wing government supported by the Arabs,” referring to a list of mostly Israeli Arab politicians that polls say could emerge as the third biggest party.
This election season has amplified the bitter divide between hard-liners and moderates in Israel.
Earlier this month, tens of thousands of Israelis rallied in a central square in Tel Aviv where a former head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency called for Netanyahu to go. On Sunday, tens of thousands of right-wing Israelis filled the same square to hear Netanyahu and nationalist politicians speak.
Netanyahu has appeared increasingly rattled, and after largely shunning the Israeli media for years, gave a series of interviews to major Israeli television networks and small regional radio stations.
He has ruled out a coalition with Herzog and said he would seek an alliance with the ultra-national Jewish Home party, which also opposes Palestinian statehood.
Netanyahu portrayed Herzog as someone who would easily give up territory for a Palestinian state. “They (the Zionist Union) want to withdraw. I don’t want to withdraw. If I put together the government, it will be a nationalist government.”
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