Gains for Arab-led parties have electrified Taibe, in central Israel, even as voters elsewhere in Israel say they have no place in any future government.
Ahmad Tibi, a leader of the Joint List party, with supporters on Tuesday outside a polling station in Taibe, Israel, a predominantly Arab town. “We’re ready to swallow frogs to take down Netanyahu’s government,” he said.
The Arab parties have long been kept on the political sidelines. But stunning turnout by their supporters makes the Arab minority an Israeli political reality that cannot be ignored.
His chief rival should reject the prime minister’s anti-democratic vision and work with Palestinian Israeli parties
Benjamin Netanyahu has lost his mandate but not, so far, power. While final votes are still being tallied, most voters picked his opponents on Tuesday. His bloc’s share of seats remains the largest, but appears to have slumped by around 10, leaving it below the 61 needed for a majority in the Knesset. Palestinian Israeli parties surged, and are projected to almost double the 10 seats they held. The result is that Mr Netanyahu’s main challenger, Gadi Eisenkot, a former head of the military, now faces a choice: fall into line with Mr Netanyahu’s racist fearmongering or work with Arab-led parties.
The prime minister who oversaw shocking security failures ahead of the Hamas atrocities of 7 October 2023 still pitches himself as “Mr Security”. On trial for corruption, he has persistently attacked democratic institutions, especially the judiciary. He embraced and then indulged the ultra-right as they cheered on brutal settler violence in the occupied West Bank. (Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich lost ground in these polls, but perhaps due to their vision’s permeation of mainstream politics more than a revolt against it.) Mr Netanyahu’s war on Iran has destabilised the region. The tens of thousands of Palestinians killed by his government’s genocidal war on Gaza have barely featured in the election campaign, but its cost for Israeli hostages and international support for Israel have been noted by voters.
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A banner for the Likud party and its leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, with the slogan, “The Right or Palestine.” Other candidates in the elections are to the left of it.
Supporters and opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have expressed intense anxieties about isolation abroad, security at home and the future of Israel’s identity.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, speaking to supporters in the food court of a shopping mall in Holon, Israel, during a campaign visit this month.
The operation, focused on the city of Hebron, the site of Friday's attack, came as Israel enters the final days before a tense election, which is largely seen as a referendum on current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership and security policies during the past three years of war.
Hundreds of Palestinian families fled their homes as the Israeli military raided Hebron. The operation came a day after Palestinian gunmen killed two soldiers.
Two Israeli soldiers were killed in an attack in the occupied West Bank on Friday morning that also left two suspected gunmen dead, the military said, violence that is likely to heighten political tensions and security concerns ahead of Israel's parliamentary election next week.
Israeli police did not identify the suspects or specify their roles in the attacks, which came during a spike in settler violence during the annual Palestinian olive harvest season.
The attack on Heidi Levine and Palestinians during the sensitive olive harvest again highlights the rampant settler violence that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed on a small number of troublemakers.
In Saturday's attack in the village of Taybeh, settlers targeted Belgium's consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said.
Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages across the occupied West Bank on Friday, setting fire to cars and trees and beating residents and a Washington Post photographer, in the latest violence to disrupt the territory's annual olive harvest this month.
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