Natanyahu and Gantz face at the polls in Israel for the third time in a year

• Middle East: Israel will go to the polls for the third time in a year

After an electoral campaign full of low attacks and promises of height, Israel returns to vote for the third time in less than a year. 6,433,255 voters are called on Monday with the polls to grant the acting prime minister, the conservative Benjamin Netanyahu or the leader of the Blue and White centrist block, Benny Gantz, the possibility of forming a government with their respective ideological allies or perhaps among them , despite the crossing of serious personal accusations.

Under the threat of a fourth election -seconded by the polls and planned with concern for 30% of the voters-, the veteran survivor of the policy and the winner last September 17 starred in a close and tense final straight until the end of the day Anyone who achieves a higher percentage of participation in their traditional feuds by bending fatigue and fear of the coronavirus (16 special ballot boxes enabled) will win the victory which does not guarantee unlocking.

Netanyahu plays his political and personal future. Yes, it is not the first time, which reflects the survival instinct of the skilful Likud tightrope walker, who grabs everything he can to avoid falling from the tightrope moved by a rival led by three former generals and a former presenter and minister, the imputation of corruption that will take him to trial in two weeks, the primary ones before his internal opponent Gideon Saar and 11 years of continuous wear on the Government. It is precisely the experience that the longest-serving prime minister in the country claims. "If they give me their votes, we can follow the best decade in Israel's history at an economic and security level. Gantz is weak, confused and not ready for office," proclaims Netanyahu.

While Gantz seeks to be the most voted list, Netanyahu expects his block-Likud - two ultra-Orthodox parties and the religious nationalist - to obtain 61 of 120 deputies from the 'Knesset' to govern. The latest surveys indicate that there are three seats of a goal that can shield you before the trial for bribery, fraud and abuse of corruption in three cases of receiving expensive gifts and favorable information coverage in exchange for favors. "If the 300,000 'likudnikim' who stayed at home vote in September, we can form a strong, safe and strong right-wing coalition that applies sovereignty over our communities in Judea and Samaria (West Bank)," he adds as a culmination of his most intense campaign since he was a deputy in 1988 with three daily rallies focusing on the great fiefs of the Likud: Jerusalem and the locations of the geographical and social periphery. Feudos that believe Netanyahu when he maintains that he is innocent in the cases imputed and "victim of a persecution of the media, the elite and the left."

New constructions

To achieve every possible vote in the colonies, Netanyahu announced the construction of more than 8,000 houses in several projects he had frozen due to international pressure. Also encouraged by the US change on the legality of settlements in territory occupied in the war of 67, it has taken the initiative in E1 from the refrigerator (which could interrupt territorial continuity between the West Bank and East Jerusalem of a future Palestinian State) and Givat HaMatos (between Bethlehem and Jerusalem) to sweeten the bitter taste in its bases after the unfulfilled promise of the application of sovereignty over the colonies before the elections. The annexation-driven on January 28 with the plan of US President Donald Trump - must wait a few months but less than peace. "I have hopes but we must be patient and above all realistic. It is not something that happens overnight. It is still a shame that the Palestinians rejected the plan even before knowing it," he says to EL WORLD Jason Greenblatt , former Trump special envoy and architect of the so-called 'Agreement of the Century' that contemplates a Palestinian State in very favorable conditions for Israel.

Thinking about the polls, Netanyahu has also annulled a major reform to satisfy the taxi drivers sector and has accelerated the arrival of 43 'falashmura' from Ethiopia to recover the two seats that represent the around 80,000 Jewish Ethiopian voters.

Netanyahu has traced in the polls - from losing two seats to winning two in two months - thanks to his international media presence, daily rallies, attacks against Gantz accusing him for example that he is "bribed by Iran who managed to hack his mobile " or that he was" a leader of the mediocre army ", allegations of a possible case of corruption in a company led by the centrist leader and especially repeating the slogan of the Likud:" Gantz's only option to have a majority is with the support of the Arab deputies of the Joint List (third force of the 'Knésset') who do not condemn the terrorist attacks. We cannot risk our security. "

Harsh accusations

Gantz is once again the only hope of broad sectors of society that want the end of the Netanyahu era due to the internal fracture and its judgment for corruption. The figure of 'Bibi' - loved and hated in equal parts - is still the main glue of the centrist block that has become the only alternative to power instead of historical Labor. He has had to join this time with the leftist movement Meretz not to be engulfed by the tide of Blue and White. The bulk of the center left - in numerical inferiority with respect to the right - embraces Gantz as it did with Kadima in 2006.

"Citizens have to choose between who thinks first in the country and will close the internal divisions and who only thinks about himself, wins election time in elections and wants to emulate Erdogan," warns Gantz. After the Likud attacks that call into question his mental stability, he raises his tone towards who his boss was while leading the Army between 2011 and 2015: "Netanyahu, look me in the eye. You are so obsessed to escape the trial with laws that you will pass if you have a majority that lie, divide, incite, spread evil and false rumors about me and use mafia practices. What you do in the last month is not a hate campaign but a hate crime against Israel's democracy. "

"I do not believe that the elections are decided on either side. The surveys, although they must be taken with great caution, indicate a virtual tie but the transfer of one or two mandates of a block to gold can be critical," estimates the demographer and professor emeritus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Sergio DellaPergola . According to EL MUNDO, "it is a national catastrophe to have reached this situation and we are close to the dismemberment of the system because there is no new budget, a Chief Inspector of the Police has not been appointed. In a functioning Government and without having a parliamentary majority, Netanyahu appointed key positions as Minister of Justice, Defense and Foreign Affairs. "

After the appointment of April 9 and September 17, the Israelis return resigned to the polls with a sensation portrayed in a cartoon by the newspaper Yediot Ajaronot : two groups pray before the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem. Some to end the coronavirus and others with the electoral virus in Israel.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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• Benjamin Netanyahu
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