Ruth Marks Eglash
Jewish Insider, Oct. 20, 2022
“Lapid is treading a fine line between poaching voters from potential coalition partners to the left of the political spectrum and ensuring high voter turnout across the board, with a particular focus on Arab voters.”
With less than 14 days until Israelis return to the polls for a fifth general election in as many years, signs that the country is in the midst of another political race are hard to find.
Some blame public apathy toward the November 1 election on the lazy days of summer vacation, followed by nearly a month of Jewish holidays. Others say Israelis are fed up with an unstable political system that has been in crisis for four years. Whatever the reason, this election appears unlikely to bring about any dramatic changes.
Yet political analysts who are closely watching the race say that it might be the most decisive election the country has faced so far, with matters such as the rule of law and political identity at stake.
Jewish Insider discussed the upcoming vote with three political observers – Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, Aviv Bushinsky, a political commentator and a former chief of staff to former Prime Minister and current Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu, and Jonathan Rynhold, head of the political studies department at Israel’s Bar Ilan University – to ask why the country is embroiled in this never-ending cycle of elections, what is this election about and what it will take for Netanyahu to return to power?
Polls published this week gave Netanyahu’s Likud around 30 seats out of the 120 in Israel’s Knesset. The right-wing bloc that backs him, however, appears to fall short of the requisite 61 seats needed to form a government. … SOURCE