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Otzma Yehudit party member Itamar Ben Gvir (R) speaks with National Union faction leader Betzalel Smotrich during a campaign event in Bat Yam, April 6, 2019. (Flash90)
Two polls released Friday, the first since official party slates were filed, indicated that the Religious Zionism alliance, which includes two extremist parties, will make it into the Knesset, that both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his opponents will have trouble mustering a coalition majority, and that Naftali Bennett’s Yamina could play the kingmaker role.
A Channel 12 survey found that out of the 39 parties running, 12 will win seats in the 24th Knesset, including the Religious Zionism alliance, which includes the Kahanist Otzma Yehudit and homophobic Noam factions. The survey found the far-right merger would win four seats.
Labor, Tnufa and Huldai fail to agree on joint run
Moran Azulay |
Published: 02.04.21 , 17:53
Labor party, Ofer Shelah’s Tnufa and Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai have failed to agree on a joint election run Thursday. Both Shelah and Huldai, who are currently expected to not pass the electoral threshold to enter Knesset, are set to drop out of the race.
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A source in Yesh Atid told Haaretz that party will highlight Netanyahu s management of the coronavirus crisis and his lenient treatment of the ultra-Orthodox community in particular. According to the source, internal evaluations by the party showed that dealing with Netanyahu’s failures in coping with the pandemic could strengthen support for party leader Yair Lapid and distance voters from Netanyahu.
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Scenes from Bnei Brak where violent protests against police enforcement erupted, January 24, 2021. Credit: Ofer Vaknin
The party has found that center-left voters are increasingly frustrated with the Haredim due to the mass violations of the coronavirus restrictions. A Channel 12 News poll released Tuesday that 78 percent of center-left voters would prefer that the next governing coalition not include Haredi parties.
Haviv Rettig Gur is The Times of Israel s senior analyst.
Yamina leader Naftali Bennett at a protest against the state s intention to close the Hilla Project, outside the Knesset in Jerusalem on August 12, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The election campaign is now in its least interesting phase, and, arguably, its most important.
Sixty-four days out from election day, this is the point when parties disassemble and reassemble as Knesset hopefuls jockey for position in search of a political vehicle that might carry them into the parliament.
New parties are forming that have no chance of making it past the 3.25 percent vote threshold for entering the Knesset, but have a reasonable hope of being scooped up by larger parties interested in thinning the competition before the February 4 party registration deadline.
Mark Twain
Here we go again – and as the polls have it Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud will once again end the elections as the largest party in the Knesset. He is also consistently polling ahead of everyone else when it comes to the most suitable candidate to be Prime Minister.
Whereas the battlelines were clear during the previous three elections with Bibi’s attempts to reach 61 seats and the anti-Bibi alliance’s repeated attempts to remove him – the results never provided a clear victor – leading to the failed ‘unity government’ and inevitably, a fourth round of elections.
Normally, the purpose of elections is to provide citizens with a functioning government to represent their needs and interests. Round four proves that elections are not the solution and if it wasn’t obvious first, second, third and now fourth time round – I’m not sure it will ever be.