JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured a clear path to re-election on Wednesday, with religious-rightist parties set to hand him a parliamentary majority and his main challenger conceding defeat.

With more than 99 percent of votes counted - ballots cast by soldiers at military bases will be tallied over the next two days - Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party looked likely to muster enough support to control 65 of the Knesset’s 120 seats and be named to head the next coalition government.

It would be Netanyahu’s record fifth term as premier.

In a televised statement, Yair Lapid, number two in the centrist Blue and White party led by former general Benny Gantz, said: “We didn’t win in this round. We will make Likud’s life hell in the opposition.”

U.S. President Donald Trump, who Netanyahu featured on campaign billboards to highlight their close relationship, phoned to congratulate him on his re-election, the Israeli leader said, adding that he thanked his American ally for “tremendous support for Israel”.

Netanyahu tweeted that Trump had called him from Air Force One. The president was on a flight to Texas.

Trump told reporters at the White House that Netanyahu’s re-election improved the chances of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. “He’s been a great ally and he’s a friend. I’d like to congratulate him on a well-thought-out race.”

A team led by Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner has been working on an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, but it has not disclosed details. Palestinians, angered by what they see as Trump’s pro-Israel bias, have called it a non-starter.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said on Twitter he would begin meeting next week with political parties that won parliamentary seats to hear who they support for prime minister.

At the sessions, which Rivlin said would be broadcast live “to ensure transparency”, he will then pick a party leader to try to form a coalition, giving the candidate 28 days to do so, with a two-week extension if needed.

The close and often vitriolic contest was widely seen in Israel as a referendum on Netanyahu’s character and record in the face of corruption allegations. He faces possible indictment in three graft cases, and has denied wrongdoing in all of them.

Despite that, Netanyahu gained four seats compared to his outgoing coalition government, according to a spreadsheet published by the Central Elections Committee of parties that garnered enough votes to enter the next parliament.

“It is a night of colossal victory,” the 69-year-old Netanyahu told cheering supporters in a late-night speech at Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv after Tuesday’s vote.

“He’s a magician!” the crowd chanted as fireworks flared and Netanyahu kissed his wife Sara. Earlier that night, Gantz had claimed victory.

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange main indexes were up nearly 1 percent in late trading on Wednesday, displaying confidence in a veteran prime minister who has overseen a humming economy and blunted various security threats, including from Syria.

Netanyahu was now poised to become, in July, the longest-serving Israeli prime minister, overtaking the country’s founding father, David Ben-Gurion. That could be scuppered if criminal charges are filed and force his removal.

Confetti falls as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara stand on stage after Netanyahu spoke following the announcement of exit polls in Israel's parliamentary election at the party headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Israel election graphic - tmsnrt.rs/2D916Uv

IMMUNITY?

An indictment decision would follow a review hearing where Netanyahu can be expected to argue he should be spared in the national interest. Some analysts predict he may try to pass a law granting himself immunity, as a sitting leader, from trial.

During the campaign, the rival parties accused each other of corruption, fostering bigotry and being soft on security.

Israel’s 21 percent Arab minority saw its parties lose seats. Voters blamed divisions between Arab factions which had united in the previous election, disillusionment, and a voting boycott campaign rooted in dismay at the 2018 “nation-state” law declaring that only Jews have the right of self-determination in Israel.

In Taybeh, an Arab town, Hadash party official Hosam Azem, 52, said: “Arabs who don’t vote, most of them don’t do it for ideological reasons - just because they don’t think their vote will have an impact,” he said.

During the campaign, Netanyahu sought to tap into Trump’s popularity among Israelis, who delighted in his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017 and transfer of the U.S. Embassy to the holy city last May from Tel Aviv.

Two weeks before the election, Trump signed a proclamation, with Netanyahu at his side at the White House, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.

In a rare turn during the race toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Netanyahu further alarmed Palestinians by pledging to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank if re-elected. Palestinians seek a state there and in the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Slideshow (11 Images)

This pre-election promise from Netanyahu was widely seen as an attempt to draw right-wing votes rather than a change of policy. But with Trump’s moves on Jerusalem and the Golan, the prime minister may feel emboldened to advocate annexation.

Commenting on the election, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said: “Israelis have voted to preserve the status quo. They have said no to peace and yes to the occupation”.

The last round of U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in 2014.

Trump is expected to release his administration’s Middle East peace plan after the election. If it includes Israeli concessions to the Palestinians, Netanyahu’s probable far-right coalition allies will probably object.</s>went to polls on Tuesday to elect members of its national legislature, Knesset, with more than 6.3 million voters eligible to exercise their franchise in what has been described as a closely fought battle.

of reported that polling began at 7am on Tuesday in 10,000 polling stations across the country. A total of 39 diverse political parties are participating in the elections for the 21st legislature.

However, this time it is a closely fought election between and former

Surveys show that Gantz's centrist is slightly ahead of But Netanyahu still has a favourable option of forming a majority coalition with other right-wing parties and retain his office.

Despite reeling under a series of corruption allegations, Netanyahu is seeking a fifth term in office. If he wins, he would become Israel's surpassing founding father

In the final days of his election campaign, Netanyahu vowed to annex settlements in the occupied if re-elected. The leader even dubbed himself as the underdog and warned that "the right-wing government is in danger".

Despite the expected majority for right-wing factions in the 120-seat Knesset, Netanyahu said that would choose whichever party is the biggest if no prime ministerial candidate has sufficient number of recommendations from other party leaders to assemble a coalition.

Netanyahu is likely to be indicted in three corruption cases, including in a charge of bribery.

Meanwhile, Gantz said needed to choose between "a direction of unity and connection and hope" and one of "extremism." He vowed to form "a cabinet of reconciliation, with representatives from the (current) coalition and opposition."

In the elections, viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu's leadership, 10,720 booths are being set up across the country, including 190 in hospitals and 58 in prisons.

Only soldiers, foreign envoys, prisoners and hospitalised patients are allowed to cast ballots away from the polling station assigned to their place of residence.

Final results of the elections are likely to be out on Thursday.</s>Israelis began voting yesterday in an election that could hand right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a record...</s>Israelis are due to cast their votes on Tuesday in an election that could end Benjamin Netanyahu’s astonishing 10-year uninterrupted run as prime minister. Or he will be re-elected, virtually guaranteeing him the title of Israel’s longest-ever serving leader.

When will we know the result?

Voting will take place on Tuesday and exit polls will come in at 10pm (8pm London time). By dawn on Wednesday, there is likely to be a clear winner.

That does not automatically create a new government. Israel’s political system is based on delicately formed and unstable coalitions crafted by a majority of the 120-seat Knesset. Once an election winner is known, the president will start consultations to see which party has the highest chance of forming a coalition. In 2015, it took Netanyahu more than a month to play the political game and gather enough seats.

What is at stake?

More than anything, the election is viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu and where he has taken Israel since he first rose to high office in 1996. Supporters of “King Bibi”, as he is known, claim Israelis have never been safer while enjoying a booming economy.

At the same time, the 69-year-old has all-but-buried the country’s peace movement, and millions of Palestinians remain under oppressive, tightly-managed military control. Israel under his tenure has swung dramatically to the right, squeezing critical voices while further sidelining and demonising minorities. He has pursued foreign relations with authoritarian strongmen and fell foul with Israel’s more liberal supporters.

One critical development that has alarmed even his staunchest backers is that Netanyahu has courted some of the most racist figures in Israeli politics to keep his seat. Running in a tight race for re-election, a Netanyahu win could bring more extreme far-right voices to power.

Who are those people?

Netanyahu made an election pact with a party of ultranationalist extremists called Jewish Power. They merged with other right-wing factions to forge a more powerful bloc that would give Netanyahu a better chance of forming a government if he wins.

Jewish Power, whose politics even the largely uncritical pro-Israel lobby Aipac deplores, are ideological successors to the militant former rabbi, Meir Kahane, whose movement was banned by Israel and the US under anti-terrorism laws.

Kahane’s modern-day followers have called homosexuality a “disease” and argue for the forced expulsion of Palestinians, including those with Israeli citizenship.

What are the main issues in this election?

A recent poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute found that the socio-economic factors are primary, while the personality of party leaders come in second, followed by foreign and defence issues.

But there’s a big wildcard this year: corruption cases against Netanyahu.

What are the charges?

The prime minister is running under a genuine threat of indictment in three separate graft investigations. Both the police and the attorney-general have said they believe he should be charged. If he is re-elected, a pre-trial hearing in which he can defend himself will taint the first months of his fifth term.

One case involves allegations of receiving gifts, including pink champagne and jewellery, from international billionaires allegedly in exchange for favours. Another swirls around claims of collusion with the country’s top-selling newspaper to hurt its competition in exchange for favourable coverage. The third and most serious case accuses Netanyahu of offering incentives to the Israeli telecom provider Bezeq in exchange for positive stories in an online news website it owns.

Netanyahu denies all the charges, which he portrays as a political witch-hunt.

Are his political rivals using this against him?

Netanyahu’s main contender, the only person seen capable of taking him down, is betting on it. Benny Gantz, a 59-year-old former army chief running a centrist party called Blue and White after the Israeli flag, has climbed in the polls.

He has almost no political experience and few concrete policies but hopes to appeal to voters by playing up his “clean” image compared to the country’s leader. Gantz has argued that Netanyahu has sowed division and battered state institutions such as the police and judiciary to stay at the top of government.

Does he have a chance?

Hard to tell. Polls suggest the initial excitement over Gantz has faded somewhat. But Israeli polls are not reliable. Many people say they have not decided who to vote for.

What about the Palestinian issue?

It was not featured prominently, sometimes not at all, on the campaign trail. While in past elections, peace with the Palestinians was the central factor for voters, it has effectively disappeared. Israel’s government has further isolated Palestinians in blocked-off enclaves where most Israelis never visit. Meanwhile, international pressure to end the occupation, especially from the US, has dropped off.</s>The alliance they left behind, between the Jewish Home party and its partner Tkuma, feared falling below the minimum threshold. Netanyahu himself intervened—to his shame—to cajole them to join forces with Otzma Yehudit, a party of former members of Kach, the party of Meir Kahane, barred from elections in Israel after one term for his racism and shunned by all political parties since the 1980s. Likud Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir used to walk out of the Knesset when Kahane spoke, to signal his disgust. The president at the time, Haim Herzog, would not even meet Kahane when he was elected to the Knesset.

Netanyahu succeeded in saving a Right Wing faction from obliteration—the United Right List based around the Jewish Home made it in—but to Israel’s credit, none of the Kahanists will have made it in to the Knesset in the end. One was barred from running by the courts, another was too far down the list. (He may enter later, if ministers from the alliance resign from the Knesset).

The Labor Party was one of the night’s biggest losers. The dominant ruling party of Israel from before the state’s birth until 1977, it has generally been the main opposition party since. It has declined precipitously since the outbreak of the Second Intifada. It should not be counted out—it has a base, and talented parliamentarians, but its failure in these elections is nothing short of astounding.

The key to the Israeli election system, however, lies not in the identity of the largest party, or the specifics of the smaller ones, but in the balance among competing blocs of parties. After elections results are certified, the Israeli president will call the newly elected members of each party to congratulate them and ask who among the members of the new Knesset they recommend as the next prime minister. The multi-party nature of the Israeli system produces difficult-to-manage coalitions, but the picture in the 21st Knesset appears clear. The preliminary results suggest that the Netanyahu will receive the recommendations of around 65 of the 120 new MKs, and he will be tasked by President Reuven Rivlin to form a new coalition. He will need all or nearly all of the right-wing parties to govern, and the price will be steep—in portfolios and in policy.

The results of the election can be attributed to the errors of the Blue and White’s campaign and the political inexperience of its leader, Benny Gantz, or to the political genius of Netanyahu. In truth, however, the right wing entered these elections—as it might enter those in 2029—with a clear advantage. The basic structure of Israeli politics has been skewed in its favor for decades.

Of the 14 elections Israel has held since 1977, the Likud has won 10, lost three, and come to a tie in one more. Since the early 2000s, moreover, the doctrinal approach of the left has been discredited in the eyes of many Israelis. The national trauma of the suicide bombings of the Second Intifada, and the perceived failure of the unilateral disengagement from Gaza, convinced most Israelis that attempts at grand engineering of reality are naïve, even reckless; that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has no neat solutions; and that trying and failing to achieve them is worse than not trying at all. I’ve called this elsewhere an anti-solutionist approach to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians: conflict management, rather than conflict resolution, serving also as cover for a consistent slide toward incorporating much of the West Bank into Israel.</s>Soldiers across the country are getting a first crack at casting ballots in Israel’s election.

Ballot boxes were opened up for troops in the Yahalom combat engineering unit Saturday night, and more polls are opening at bases across the country ahead of the Tuesday vote, the Israel Defense Forces said Sunday.

While most Israelis will have just 12 hours to cast ballots Tuesday, the polls for soldiers will be open for 72 hours to allow for special circumstances.

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Some 640 polling stations will be opened for soldiers across the country, including 130 mobile ballot booths for troops serving in isolated posts or other remote locations, according to the army.

The soldiers are the first to be allowed to vote in Israel, where polling stations for everyone else will open at 8 a.m. Tuesday in most places, closing at 8 p.m.

Though Israel does not allow absentee voting, diplomats, other types of envoys and their families from New Zealand to California were given the first chance to be allowed to vote for the 21st Knesset late last month.

A total of 39 parties are competing in Israel’s first Knesset election since 2015 for the votes of some 6.3 million Israelis eligible to cast ballots.

According to election officials, there will be 10,720 ballot booths set up across the country, including 190 in hospitals and 58 in prison.

Soldiers, foreign envoys, prisoners and hospitalized patients are the only Israelis allowed to cast ballots away from the polling station assigned to their place of residence.</s>JERUSALEM - Today, Israelis go to the polls to choose their next government. The stakes are high for the country and for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israelis are voting all over the country, from the north in Metula and all the way down south to Eilat. In fact, it's a national holiday and most people have the day off.

The stakes are the future direction of Israel and the two main competitors are the Blue and White party led by former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz and the Likud party led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The polls are extremely close and pollsters say as many as one-fourth of the population were undecided up to today and some people will probably be making their decisions in the voting booth itself.

Although many Israelis viewed this election season as especially combative, they recognize the importance of showing up at the polls today.

"It was unbelievable. So many dirty things one to another. I don't like it. But it's our duty to vote," Israeli voter Kathleen Many told CBN News.

Others celebrated the freedom to vote.

"This is the only country in the Middle East that has a happy, healthy, free, open democracy. And that is reason enough to celebrate today. So, happy Election Day everybody," Ari Kalker said.

The results will come in late Tuesday night and then the country, the region and the world will have a better idea of where the Jewish state is heading.

You can see election updates on CBNNews.com and watch our full election results tomorrow on the 700 Club.</s>Photo caption: Welcome to Israeli elections where advocating war crimes gets you votes!

 Sign reads “No to ceasefire. It’s time for continuous (non-stop) fire.”

As Haidar Eid, Associate Professor at al-Aqsa University on the Gaza Strip,put it,

If we are to gain anything from this critical moment, we should seize the opportunity offered us by the blatant racism of Israeli elections and the so-called “deal of the century” to foreground the much needed alternative. I.e, equality and justice for all.

One way of doing this, in my view, is for Palestinian citizens of Israel to boycott the April 9 Knesset elections. After all, let’s take a look at who can vote in the elections. Millions of Palestinians live under Israeli rule but cannot vote for the government that controls their lives. There is even a “Partial” category to who can vote in the Israeli 2019 elections: Palestinian Citizens in unrecognized villages — only a small percentage of them can vote!

Photo caption: IMEU poster: 2019 Israeli Elections: Millions of Palestinians live under Israeli rule but cannot vote for the government that controls their lives.

The creation of the Jewish state on 78% of Palestine in 1948 resulted in the fragmentation (both geographic and juridical) of the Palestinian people, who are united, nevertheless, in opposing the legitimacy of the partitioning of Palestine. To this day, they continue to demand their internationally recognized right of return to their homeland and self-determination in it.

In response to one of the many questions on Quora that are designed to legitimate Israel [Do anti-zionists understand how much better Israel treats Palestinians (who live in Israel, not the territories) than any of the other countries surrounding?], I quoted the following from a United Nations publication issued by ESCWA and later withdrawn for political reasons:

Domain 1 embraces about 1.7 million Palestinians who are citizens of Israel. For the first 20 years of the country’s existence, they lived under martial law and to this day are subjected to oppression on the basis of not being Jewish. That policy of domination manifests itself in inferior services, restrictive zoning laws and limited budget allocations made to Palestinian communities; in restrictions on jobs and professional opportunities; and in the mostly segregated landscape in which Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel live. Palestinian political parties can campaign for minor reforms and better budgets, but are legally prohibited by the Basic Law from challenging legislation maintaining the racial regime. The policy is reinforced by the implications of the distinction made in Israel between “citizenship” (ezrahut) and “nationality” (le’um): all Israeli citizens enjoy the former, but only Jews enjoy the latter. “National” rights in Israeli law signify Jewish-national rights. The struggle of Palestinian citizens of Israel for equality and civil reforms under Israeli law is thus isolated by the regime from that of Palestinians elsewhere.

In addition to the above, a report published in commemoration of Land Day (‘A potent symbol of the Palestinian struggle’) this year by Jihad Abu Raya, a Palestinian lawyer and activist based in northern Israel and the founder of the Falestaniyat movement, gives us a searing picture of the situation of Palestinian citizens of Israel. The report had the subtitle, ‘Palestinian citizens of Israel gather annually to demand their rights to the land Israel stole’, and included the following information about the confiscation of Palestinian land by the Israeli government and Palestinian resistance to it:

On the first Land Day, 30 March, 1976, Palestinian citizens of Israel tried to rescue what remained of their lands after the Israeli government announced plans to confiscate around 20,000 dunams (2,000 hectares) of private Palestinian land in the Galilee, particularly in the areas of Sakhnin, Arraba and Deir Hanna.

The goal was to create a Jewish city on these lands, as part of a wider campaign to Judaise the Galilee. It came through the implementation of the 1976 confidential Koenig Memorandum, which recommended that the confiscation of Palestinian land continue and that work should be done to impoverish Palestinians with the aim of displacing them.

… Yet, the confiscation of land in the Galilee was merely the straw that broke the camel’s back. The protests and mass demonstrations had been building since the Nakba.

In a process of harassing and chasing those Palestinians who remained in their homeland, the confiscation of land began immediately after the Nakba, with the passing of the absentee property law.

It is clear, given the above, that Palestinian citizens of Israel should continue to resist their domination and oppression at the hands of the Israeli government. But is the use of the tactic of boycotting the April 9 Knesset elections by Palestinian citizens of Israel an effective means of doing so?

Photo caption: Mosque minarets are seen next to an election campaign banners depicting Ahmad Tibi, from of the Hadash-Ta’al party in the Israeli-Arab village of Taibe, northern Israel April 3, 2019. Picture taken April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Nijmeh Ali and Yara Hawari are both Al-Shabaka policy members and discuss this question here in one of the organization’s roundtable discussions, a forum for Palestinian debate on important issues.

Ali, who is currently working on her PhD at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Otago University, New Zealand, grew up in Haifa; her family are internal refugees originally from Mia’ar in the Galilee. Hawari’s research is focused on oral history projects and memory politics, framed within Indigenous Studies.

In making their points, each answers the following questions put to them by Al-Shabaka:
• What do Palestinian citizens of Israel gain by participating in the Israeli elections? By boycotting them?
• How does the historical context of Palestinian political participation inform your stance?
• How do recent events such as the passing of the nation-state law and the dissolution of the Arab Joint List come into play?
• What role does voting or boycotting have in the continuous and future struggle for Palestinian liberation?

Their discussion highlights the following important points:
• Electoral rejection without constructing a solid alternative establishes a political passivity that is dangerous for a colonized, occupied, and oppressed people
• Far from being a sign of apathy, election boycotts are a well-used political tool
• Palestinian citizens of Israel can act when circumstances guarantee mass support politically and, on the ground,
• Boycotting the Knesset elections must be a tactic that is part of an overall vision for the Palestinian citizens of Israel

My own view is that, since there is little difference between the candidates (see: Netanyahu and Gantz are two sides of the same coin) that can effect meaningful change for Palestinians (within the Green Line and outside it), Palestinian citizens of Israel might as well boycott this election and continue to work on an effective political vision for the future.

Rima Najjar is a retired professor at Ql-Quds University, Palestine. Her father comes from Lifta/Jerusalem and her mother from Ijzim/Haifa.

Note: The above was first published on Quora as an answer to the Question, ‘Should Palestinian citizens of Israel boycott the April 9 Israeli elections?’</s>As many as half a dozen parties are teetering on the threshold for entering the Knesset, or parliament. A failure by any of these parties to get the required 3.25% of total votes cast could have a dramatic impact on who ultimately forms the next coalition. The Israeli government needs a parliamentary majority to rule, and since no party has ever earned more than half of the 120 seats in the Knesset, a coalition is required.</s>Jerusalem – Israeli voters were deciding Tuesday whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains in office after a decade in power as they cast ballots in a national election that has become a referendum of sorts on their longtime leader.

Clouded by a series of looming corruption indictments, Netanyahu is seeking a fourth consecutive and a fifth overall term in office, which would make him Israel’s longest-ever serving leader, surpassing founding father David Ben-Gurion.

He faces a stiff challenge from retired military chief Benny Gantz, whose Blue and White party has inched ahead of Netanyahu’s Likud in polls. Netanyahu still appears to have the best chance of forming a coalition, though, with a smattering of small nationalist parties backing him.

Gantz voted in his hometown of Rosh Haayin in central Israel alongside his wife, Revital, calling on Israelis to vote and “take responsibility” for their democracy.

“Go to vote. Choose whoever you believe in. Respect each other and let us all wake up for a new dawn, a new history,” he said.

Netanyahu cast his ballot shortly after in Jerusalem, alongside his wife Sara, urging all Israelis to vote and saying it is a “sacred act.”

The election has emerged as a referendum on Netanyahu and his 13 years overall in power, with the existential questions facing Israel rarely being discussed in the campaign. The 69-year-old prime minister has been the dominant force in Israeli politics for the past two decades and its face to the world.

But his various corruption scandals have created some voter fatigue, and in recent days he’s vowed to annex Jewish West Bank settlements if re-elected – a prospect that could doom the already slim hopes of establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel, which Netanyahu has previously wavered on.

“It’s about time for a change,” said Barry Rifkin, a Jerusalem resident.

Polling stations opened at 7 a.m., with exit polls expected at the end of the voting day, at 10 p.m. Some 6.4 million eligible voters will be able to cast their ballots at more than 10,000 stations. Some 40 parties are running, but no more than a dozen are expected to make it into parliament. Election day in Israel is a national holiday, with turnout expected to be high in good weather.

Official results will begin streaming in early Wednesday, but it may take far longer for a final verdict to come through, given the fragmented state of Israeli politics.

As many as a half-dozen parties are teetering along the threshold for entering the Knesset, or parliament. A failure by any of these parties to get the required 3.25 percent of total votes cast could have a dramatic impact on who ultimately forms the next coalition. The Israeli government needs a parliamentary majority to rule, and since no party has ever earned more than half of the 120 seats in the Knesset, a coalition is required.

Netanyahu and Gantz have ruled out sitting together in government, so the next prime minister will likely come down to how many supporters each candidate can recruit.

Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, could play an important role. Though largely a ceremonial post, the president is responsible for choosing the candidate with the best chance of building a stable coalition government as prime minister.

Rivlin told voters as he cast his ballot in Jerusalem that “the only ones that will determine who will be prime minister, and what the next government will be, are you.”

“And in order for you to influence, you must vote,” he said.

In the campaign’s final days, Netanyahu has veered to the right and embarked on a media blitz in which he portrays himself as the underdog and frantically warns that “the right-wing government is in danger.”

His nationalist allies, however, see the move as a repeat of his 2015 election tactic to draw away their voters as he did four years ago when on election day, he warned of Arabs turning out in “droves.” The scare tactics were seen as helping him seal a come-from-behind victory.

Arab turnout will be a major issue this time as well. Netanyahu’s campaign against Arab politicians, together with the new alliance with anti-Arab extremists and the passage of last year’s contentious nation-state law, which enshrined Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people alone, have deepened calls for a ballot boycott in Arab communities.

But some hope these blows will have the opposite effect, fueling enough frustration to drive up the Arab participation rate, which is typically lower than that of Israeli Jews. A big Arab turnout could push smaller right-wing parties into the margins and even threaten Netanyahu’s long rule.

The leftist Meretz even put out a video urging Arabs to vote. “Bibi is counting on you. Because if you don’t vote, Bibi wins,” it said, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.

The Palestinian issue has been largely sidelined in the election campaign that has been long on scandal and short on substance. But in a reminder, the military says it imposed a 24-hour closure on the West Bank and Gaza throughout election day, based on its security assessments.

Even if he is re-elected, Netanyahu could have a difficult time governing. Some of his allies have indicated they will no longer back him if formal charges are filed.

Israel’s attorney general has recommended indicting him on bribery and breach of trust charges in three separate cases. Rivals have also begun to question a deal in which Netanyahu reportedly earned $4 million on a German submarine sale to Egypt by owning shares in one of the German manufacturer’s suppliers.

Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing and claims the accusations are part of a liberal media’s orchestrated witch hunt against him.

Netanyahu has generated much of his popularity from projecting a tough image in the face of Iran’s rising power and for keeping Israel safe and prosperous in a hostile region.

But in Gantz he has encountered the rare opponent who can match his security credentials. Along with two other former military chiefs on his ticket, Gantz has attacked Netanyahu for failing to halt rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The telegenic Gantz, who has been vague on key policy fronts, has presented himself as a clean, scandal-free alternative to Netanyahu and has vowed to heal the rifts the longtime leader has created in Israeli society.
Israelis go to the polls to elect the new members of the Knesset (Israel's parliament) and a new Prime Minister.