Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed victory over COVID-19 by making Israel a “vaccinated nation. “That may not be enough when voters with mandatory masks throw their ballots in Tuesday’s election.
Netanyahu, who turned the world’s best vaccine into Israel into a showcase of his campaign in the country’s fourth national poll in two years, gave a measured assessment of his chances from after the latest polls mark a close race.
5 צפייה בגלריה
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the first person in Israel to receive the coronavirus vaccine, December. 2020
(Photo: Screenshot)
“I still miss her [Knesset] a seat or two to achieve a stable government, ”he told Army Radio on Sunday, in what could be a strategic attempt to turn supporters of his Likud party out to vote.
Opinions showed an uptick for Likud in the campaign’s home stretch, giving about 60 seats to a Netanyahu-led coalition of conservative and ultra-rectangular Jewish parties, still short of a majority in the 120-member parliament.
But the studies showed that a possible alliance, while perhaps not like left-wing, center-right and right-wing groups, is led by Netanyahu’s strongest competitor in the polls – centrist Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party – also nearly 60.
No party has ever won a separate Knesset majority in the Israeli election. In close competition, election night results may only be a start, with backroom coalition talks determining whether “King Bibi” will still rule.
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Likud campaign poster highlights Benjamin Netanyahu’s close ties to former president Donald Trump
(Photo: EPA)
Away this time Netanyahu’s big billboards showed a handshake with the Donald Trump ally, the issue in the U.S. primary election in November.
And with Democrat Joe Biden in the White House, there was little expectation of U.S. diplomatic moves that could help Netanyahu’s election chances.
Israel’s longest-serving leader, 71, focused instead on clarifying its role in turning high-tech Israel into a “vaccine nation. ”
More than half of the population has been fully absorbed at a pace that has drawn international praise for Netanyahu.
“We are the champions of the world in handling the coronavirus … I have introduced millions of doses of vaccines and I will give millions more,” said Netanyahu on the stump, packing the platform in several daily campaign rallies and in several media interviews as close election day.
Political opponents say he handled the pandemic from the start, pointing to the need for three national locks and denying he turned a blind eye to violators within the an ultra-direct community that will provide a power base for its key consortium partners.
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Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein will welcome a plane carrying Pfizer vaccines as it arrives at Ben-Gurion Airport
(Photo: Reuters)
For Netanyahu, a public recommendation from Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Israel’s leading vaccine provider, was campaign gold. Prime Minister Bourla told Channel 12 Israeli TV that he phoned him 30 hours to get a supply deal – even calling at 3 p.m.
“Just as I was obsessive about the vaccines, I will be obsessive about our economy,” Netanyahu told Army Radio, promising more wages for all Israeli and sickly businesses.
But after three inconclusive elections, voters have had plenty of time to make up their minds about Netanyahu, in a ballot held nearly a quarter of a century to the day after the first earn his term as prime minister.
Despite the denial of corruption charges, weekly street protests over the alleged allegation, a test expected to gain momentum after the ballot and the elections in April and November. -September 2019 and last March, Netanyahu has been staying at the helm of Israel.
This time, much could be attributed to the able king Naftali Bennett, who heads Yamina’s most distant party and was Netanyahu’s former defense minister.
Without Bennett’s support, a Netanyahu-led coalition or an anti-Bibi alliance would not have enough parliamentary seats for a ruling majority, polls have shown.
And Arab voters may find the balance, six years after Netanyahu, drawing racist allegations, on election day that they were “making the polling stations in droves” to increase their chances for destroy right-wing government.
Now, he is falling down from the Likud boards in Arabic and has ventured into several Arab cities. Looking at their deceptive political mix in the country, many Israelis are just questioning whether the fifth election is on the cards.