Posted on 03/23/2021 6:36:33 AM PDT by SJackson
JERUSALEM — For the fourth time in less than two years, Israelis are voting Tuesday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to maintain his grip on power after a record-breaking 12 consecutive years in office.
Indicted for alleged bribery and fraud, he has refused to resign, polarizing the country between diehard supporters and enraged opponents, and sparking a political gridlock that has led Israel to hold elections more frequently than any other major democracy.
Netanyahu no longer has former President Donald Trump's policy gifts and pre-election boosts. Instead, a world-leading COVID-19 vaccination drive and a quick reopening of the economy ahead of this weekend's Passover holiday has brought Netanyahu a surge of admiration that he hopes will carry him to victory.
"We went from slavery to freedom," said retired postal worker and Netanyahu voter Herzel Guetta vacationing in Jerusalem after a long period of lockdowns, borrowing a phrase from the Passover story of the biblical exodus from Egypt. "He really cared."
Even Israelis who want to unseat him give Bibi, Netanyahu's popular nickname, credit for convincing Pfizer to choose Israel to host an early vaccine rollout, vaccinating more Israelis per capita than any other country.
"He came out as a genius with corona. He opened up the economy with concerts. He proved himself with vaccines, one of the highest vaccination rates in the world," said Shani Segalovich, 20, eating lunch in a Jerusalem market. "I want change, but I have a feeling Bibi will win."
Polls predict a tight race with Netanyahu having a slight advantage over his rivals to form a hard-right government comprised of Jewish religious parties, far-right ultranationalist and anti-LGBTQ factions.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Weary of what?
Mail in ballots fraud there?
Biden tanked Middle East Peace.
He undermined the Abraham Accords this weekm
Again? Are they doing this annually?
There’s a small handful of world leaders over the past few years who could be counted on to at least attempt to do what they saw as being in the best interest of their people: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Benjamin Netanyahu come to mind immediately as examples.
The Zeitgeist of Israeli politics seems to be that elections will continue until Labor wins. Do they have voting by mail?
A couple of times a year apparently. Nobody can get a majority.
That leads me to believe that their elections are a lot more honest than ours. They keep having elections until the Left is happy; we have one election, but just keep counting until the Left is happy.
No, they have about a dozen different parties getting seats in the Knesset, each with their own agenda. It's hard to build a majority without the Arab party, nobody wants to build a coalition with the Arab party, and they hold 13% of the seats.
Why post anything from Pravda, unless you hate Israel?
Their Deep State will keep them voting until it gets the result it wants.
Or until Israelis have had it with their Deep State.
Since they don’t make Israelis like they used to, I don’t hold out a lotta hope for that second one.
The right (or what passes for right in Israel) + religious bloc has an easy majority in the Knesset, if Netanyahu wasn’t the PM. It’s personal.
Weary of what?
Weary of voting every 6 months. Isreals Constitution needs to be re-written so no jerkoffs can vote to desolve the government whenever they feel like it.
Thanks SJackson.
Is Obama and Biden over there campaigning for his opponent?
WTH? ANOTHER election? I thought they ended the stalemate last year by coming up with a compromise “coalition” government where they would rotate the PM chair so Bibi stays on for a year, then Gantz is PM for a year.
LOL
Bibi made a gov’t with Leftist Gantz and then sucker-punched him. Many cynics predicted it. Meanwhile, Bibi alienated many who had been his strongest supporters on the Right.
Possibly the right-religious bloc will support Bibi for president in exchange for stepping down from PM.
That lasted about six months before falling apart.
vote no on vaccine ids. No Benjamin.
Apparently they failed to agree on a budget in December so Parliament was dissolved.
The election is extremely close, again. Bibs has declared victory.
I wonder he would feel now if Trump issued a statement right now stating "Congrats to Yair Lapid on becoming Prime Minister-Elect of Israel! America looks forward to working with you on our shared goals of peace and security around the world! Also, a heartfelt thanks to outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for many years of outstanding public service! You will be missed greatly."
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