Israeli Elections
Gideon Sa’ar finishes third, despite the reported campaign against him • Israel Katz first on the party ticket, followed by Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein • Controversial MK Oren Hazan booted by voters; former Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat finishes sixth.
Meretz Party leader Tamar Zandberg: “I call on Labor members to join Meretz” • Labor party is imploding because for generations, its leaders have always broken right, she says.
Each eligible voter is entitled to choose 12 representatives.
Tune in to Tipping Point’s latest election edition, in which veteran pollster Professor Camil Fuchs shares his experiences surveying Israelis over decades of elections (01:43) and takes us back to the “too close to call” vote of 1996. (03:00)
Israel kept Iran from securing a nuclear arsenal, fought Hamas and thwarted Hezbollah’s attack tunnels, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells Likud TV • He also addresses alleged putsch attempt by party rival Gideon Sa’ar.
Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said that pushing the announcement of a decision due to the prime minister’s concern it could politically damage him would be intervening in the elections.
Polls conducted by all three major networks show former IDF Chief Benny Gantz’s Israel Resilience Party winning 21 to 24 seats, making it the second-biggest party after Likud • Channel 12: Gantz-Yesh Atid ticket headed by Gantz would scoop up 35 seats.
Anonymous Yesh Atid officials tell Israel Hayom that if former IDF Chief Benny Gantz doesn’t join forces with their party, Lapid will “take him out.”
Education Minister Naftali Bennett blasted former IDF Chief Benny Gantz and former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, saying the last time they teamed up, it resulted in 30 terror tunnels
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the talks will not be “driven” by the United States, but by Israelis and Palestinians themselves.
Israel’s intelligence community, together with the Foreign Ministry, the National Cyber Directorate and private cyber-defense firms, are all preparing to track and repel any attempts at foreign intervention.
The lawyers were expected to argue that if the hearing process did not conclude before the election, the public would not be able to hear Netanyahu’s defense, and therefore could be unduly biased by the hearing.
