JERUSALEM: A visibly frantic Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the fight of his political life as the country heads to national elections for the second time this year.
With Netanyahu locked in a razor tight race and facing the likelihood of criminal corruption charges, a decisive victory in Tuesday’s vote may be the only thing to keep him out of the courtroom. A repeat of the deadlock in April’s election, or a victory by challenger Benny Gantz, could spell the end of the career of the man who has led the country for the past decade.
Netanyahu’s daily campaign stunts have helped him set the national agenda — a tactic the media-savvy Israeli leader has perfected throughout his three decades in national politics. But it may well be the things he can’t control — including a former political ally turned rival and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip — that bring him down.
Throughout the abbreviated campaign, Netanyahu has seemed to create new headlines at will. One day he is jetting off for meetings with world leaders. The next, he claims to unveil a previously undisclosed Iranian nuclear site. Then he vows to annex parts of the occupied West Bank. Nearly every day, he issues unfounded warnings about the country’s Arab minority “stealing” the election, drawing accusations of incitement and racism.
“Netanyahu is always worried. That’s why he has survived this long,” said Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist at the Haaretz newspaper and author of a recent biography of Netanyahu.
“Every election campaign he enters convinced that he can lose, and that’s how he fights it, with his back to the wall,” he said.
By many counts, the strategy has worked. Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, has dominated the political discourse during a campaign that is seen as a referendum on his rule. His opponents, meanwhile, have been forced to react to his ever-shifting tactics.
Netanyahu has turned to a familiar playbook — presenting himself as a global statesman who is uniquely qualified to lead the country while also portraying himself as the underdog, lashing out at perceived domestic enemies who he claims are conspiring against him.
During a Channel 12 TV interview late Saturday, Netanyahu appeared distressed and combative. He smirked, shook his head and raised his voice as he accused the media of “inciting” against him, angrily rejected the legal case against him and issued dire warnings that his Likud party will lose. “Victory is not in our pocket,” he said.
At the same time, he claimed the country understands that only he can lead. His campaign ads portray him as being in a “different league” and show him embracing his friend, President Donald Trump, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin, India’s Narendra Modi and other world leaders. Last week, Netanyahu rushed to Sochi, Russia, for talks with Putin about Iran.
“The public is saying, ‘We understand that you are a world-class leader,’” he told Channel 12.
Echoing Trump, Netanyahu routinely lashes out at the media, the judiciary, prosecutors and other alleged foes. But it has been his attacks on Israel’s Arab minority that have caused the most controversy. Netanyahu has long targeted Israeli Arabs to rally his working-class, nationalist base — implying that they are a fifth column threatening the county.
In the current campaign, he has taken these tactics to a new level. He sparked uproar by leading a failed effort to allow activists to film voters at polling stations, claiming without evidence that they were needed to prevent fraud in Arab districts.
That was followed by a message on his Facebook page calling on voters to prevent the establishment of a government that includes “Arabs who want to destroy us all.”
Facebook determined the post violated its hate speech policy and sanctioned the page for 24 hours. Netanyahu said the post was a staffer’s mistake and had been removed.
Ayman Odeh, leader of the main Arab faction in parliament, accused Netanyahu of fearmongering. During a parliamentary session on the voting booth cameras, Odeh mocked Netanyahu by approaching the prime minister and pointing his cellphone camera at him, sparking a brief scuffle with other lawmakers.
“He always looks for an enemy. Always,” said Odeh. “This man offers no hope. He only uses fear.”
Days before the election, the race appears too close to call. Polls published over the weekend showed Netanyahu’s Likud and Gantz’s Blue and White neck and neck. Both parties fall far short of a majority in the 120-seat parliament, with their “blocs” of smaller allied parties also evenly divided.
The stakes are especially high for Netanyahu. Israel’s attorney general has recommended that Netanyahu be indicted in three corruption cases, pending a hearing scheduled in October.
Although Netanyahu denies all charges, it is widely believed that he hopes to be able to form a narrow coalition of hard-line and religious parties willing to grant him immunity from prosecution.
If he falls short, he could find himself in the opposition or forced into a partnership with centrist rivals who have no interest in protecting him from prosecutors.
“He has no limits, because his only goal today is to avoid going to trial,” said Stav Shaffir, a candidate with the leftist Democratic Union party. “He’s afraid. But the thing is his fear is now used to threaten Israeli democracy. He’s tearing apart Israeli society,” she said.
This week’s election was triggered by Avigdor Lieberman, a longtime ally turned rival who refused to join Netanyahu’s coalition last April, robbing him of a majority, because of what he said was excessive influence by Jewish ultra-Orthodox religious parties.
Lieberman is once again playing hard to get. His Yisrael Beitenu party has emerged as a likely kingmaker, and he is demanding the formation of a secular unity government.
Lieberman also has repeatedly seized on the prime minister’s failure to stop rocket fire launched by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
Despite Netanyahu’s attempts to divert attention from the issue, he was embarrassed last week when air raid sirens disrupted a campaign rally in southern Israel and he was whisked away to safety. The clip spread quickly on social media and was repeatedly played on Israeli TV stations.
Even Netanyahu’s much-hyped friendship with Trump has not delivered major results. During the first campaign early this year, Trump gave Netanyahu a boost by inviting him to the White House, where he recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 war.
This time around, Trump has instead alarmed the Israelis by declaring his readiness to meet with the president of Iran, Israel’s archenemy, and then firing National Security Adviser John Bolton, an Iran hawk who was a strong Israel supporter in the White House.
“It seems that the gift that never stops giving, Donald Trump, has stopped cooperating with Netanyahu at the most critical junction in time,” columnist Ben Caspit wrote in the Maariv daily.
“But no one should eulogize Netanyahu just yet,” he added. “He still has a few days left. More dramatic announcements still lie ahead.”
Late on Saturday, Trump delivered a small election gift, announcing on Twitter that he was exploring a possible defense pact with Israel.
While less dramatic than the Golan announcement last spring, Netanyahu happily accepted the gesture, thanking his “dear friend” and trumping it as “historic.”
Embattled Israeli PM fights for survival in do-over election
Embattled Israeli PM fights for survival in do-over election
- During a Channel 12 TV interview late Saturday, Netanyahu appeared distressed and combative
- Last week, Netanyahu rushed to Sochi, Russia, for talks with Putin about Iran
Tunisia-Libya border crossing closed due to clashes
Libya’s interior ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that “outlaws” had attacked the border, which sees a large flow of Libyans often going to Tunisia for medical treatment and trucks with goods coming in the opposite direction.
“This action carried out by these outlaw groups will not be tolerated, and legal measures and the most severe penalties will be taken against those involved,” the Tripoli-based ministry said, without giving further details.
Libya has had little peace since a 2011 uprising and is split between eastern and western factions, with rival administrations governing each area.
Unverified footage on social media showed a burning vehicle at Ras Jdir and people running, with the sound of gunfire.
The ministry said on Sunday it had deployed security forces at the border to combat smuggling and insecurity.
Tunisia’s Tataouine Radio said late on Monday that Tunisia closed the crossing for the safety of citizens going to Libya.
Qatar: An Israeli operation in Rafah will result in ‘atrocities’ that have not been seen
Qatar is cautiously optimistic about the Gaza ceasefire talks, he added during a press conference in Doha.
UN reports a 35 percent increase in people affected by violence in South Sudan
- There is a 35 percent increase in the number of victims reported from the previous quarter
- Violence caused by ethnic tensions and disputes over resources such as land has increased in various parts of the country
The UN Mission in South Sudan, or UNMISS, documented 233 incidents of violence affecting 862 people. Of that, 406 were killed, 293 were injured, 100 were abducted and 63 subjected to conflict-related sexual violence, it said in a report released Monday.
It was a 35 percent increase in the number of victims reported from the previous quarter.
South Sudan is to hold elections later this year, the first since a 2018 peace deal between President Salva Kiir and his former rival, Riek Machar, that ended a five-year conflict that killed hundreds of thousands.
Violence caused by ethnic tensions and disputes over resources such as land has increased in various parts of the country in recent months, particularly in the oil-rich region of Abyei.
The head of UNMISS, Nicholas Haysom, said it is “doing all it can to prevent violence and build peace in the affected areas” and urged the South Sudan government to intervene and “resolve underlying grievances and build peace.”
It said it has conducted at least 10,000 peacekeeping patrols by land, air and boat over the past year.
South Sudan, one of the world’s youngest nations, also suffers from drought and flooding, making living conditions difficult for residents.
The World Food Program in its latest country brief said South Sudan “continues to face a dire humanitarian crisis” due to violence, economic instability, climate change and an influx of people fleeing the conflict in neighboring Sudan.
Israel hits Hezbollah arms depots in Syria: war monitor
- Strikes have increased since Israel’s war with Palestinian militant group Hamas, a Hezbollah ally, began on October 7
BEIRUT: Israeli raids hit warehouses storing weapons for the Lebanese Hezbollah group in Syria Tuesday, a war monitor said, as a Syrian military source said air defenses had intercepted several missiles.
Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since civil war broke out in 2011, targeting Iran-backed forces including Hezbollah as well as Syrian army positions.
The strikes have increased since Israel’s war with Palestinian militant group Hamas, a Hezbollah ally, began on October 7.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the latest strikes near the capital Damascus Tuesday had destroyed weapons and ammunition, causing secondary explosions and fires.
A military source quoted by Syrian state media said Israeli “air aggression” had targeted several military positions near Damascus.
“Our air defenses took action and shot down several missiles,” the source added.
The Britain-based Observatory said it was the second such strike in two days, coming after raids on Sunday hit another Hezbollah weapons depot and a separate site near Damascus.
Earlier this month, an Israeli strike reportedly killed an Iranian Revolutionary Guard and two other people in Banias on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
The Israeli army said last week it had hit about 4,500 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and Syria over the past five months.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in Syria.
Israeli airstrikes kill 20 in Gaza, Palestinian officials say
- In Deir Al-Balah, a town in central Gaza about 14 km (8.6 miles) south of Gaza City, the sounds of explosions mixed with thunder, and rain added to the miseries of displaced families in tent camps
CAIRO: Twenty Palestinians were killed in the early hours of Tuesday in Israeli air strikes on Rafah and central parts of the Gaza Strip, Gaza health officials said.
In the southern Gaza city of Rafah near the Egyptian border, where over 1 million Palestinians have sought shelter, 14 people were killed and dozens others wounded in strikes that hit several houses and apartments, Gaza medical officials said.
Six more people died in another air strike on a house in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, they added.
In Deir Al-Balah, a town in central Gaza about 14 km (8.6 miles) south of Gaza City, the sounds of explosions mixed with thunder, and rain added to the miseries of displaced families in tent camps.
“We are no longer able to distinguish between the sounds of thunder and bombings,” Shaban Abdel-Raouf, a father of five in Deir Al-Balah, said via a chat application.
“We used to await the rain and pray to God if it was late. Today we pray it doesn’t rain. The displaced people have enough miseries,” he added.
The conflict, now in its sixth month, began when Hamas fighters stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel’s assault has killed more than 31,000 Gazans, according to Palestinian health officials.
Negotiations for a ceasefire in the war were due to resume on Monday with an Israeli delegation heading to Qatar.
“We are looking forward to the good news from Qatar. Will it happen this time? Will they seal a deal? Over 2 million people in Gaza are praying they do,” said Abdel-Raouf.