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Bibi heads the polling pack, but Bennett is kingmaker
1. The Likud Grabs a Big Lead
Binyamin Netanyahu simplified his strategy this time around. Tout his foreign policy accomplishments. Vaccinate the country. Open the economy. Then enter Election Day proclaiming Israel as the first country to conquer COVID-19.
So far it’s working, yet it’s not a riskless strategy. The better Bibi looks in the polls, the more likely the Biden administration is to break its silence and put pressure on him, perhaps expediting negotiations with Iran as a lever. A new coronavirus mutation could trigger a fourth lockdown. And even if Israelis are healthy enough to bentsh gomel before Election Day, Bibi will face furious voters who’ve lost livelihoods to the pandemic, and a grumpy citizenry who presume Netanyahu is guilty until proven innocent of corruption.
Gideon Sa ar visiting the Hadassah Ein Kerem medical center in Jerusalem, December 16, 2020.
Thursday at midnight is the deadline for submitting lists of candidates for the 24th Knesset elections, to be conducted on March 23, and one of the most curious phenomena of this campaign, former Likud minister Gideon Saar’s Tikva Chadasha (New Hope) party has sent The Jewish Press Online its final list (presumably they also sent it to many other news outlets).
The list was submitted to the Central Elections Committee on Wednesday night by some of Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu most noteworthy foes within his coalition during the 23rd Knesset: MK Dr. Yifat Shasha BitonâNetanyahu’s Minister of Construction and Housing; Yoaz HendelâBibi’s Minister of Communications; and former Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Ofer Berkovitch.
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A statue of an anti-Netanyahu demonstrator holding an Israeli flag seen on display at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv December 18, 2020, (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
In March 2020, a record low of only eight parties were voted into the Knesset. In March 2021, it’s likely more parties will make it in, but it seems that just two cities will leave an outsized mark on the personnel and ideological makeup of the factions: Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
There has always been a tension between the country’s two largest cities: staid and conservative Jerusalem, laden with the weight of its spiritual and political importance, versus its wealthier, more carefree progressive cousin Tel Aviv, the nation’s economic and cultural hub.
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Jerusalem council member Ofer Berkovitch, head of the Hitorerut movement, is joining Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope.
Berkovitch, 37, ran for Jerusalem mayor in 2018 against another member of New Hope, Ze’ev Elkin, though both were defeated by current mayor Moshe Lion.
Ofer Berkovitch, Jerusalem Mayoral candidate and head of the Hitorerut (Awakening) movement, is seen at the opening of the Hitorerut election campaign in Jerusalem on September 2, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
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