Netanyahu visits Western Wall, prays for ‘victory of the people of Israel’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slotted a prayer note between the stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday night hours before the polling stations opened for the 26th Knesset election the following morning.

Israel’s longest-serving prime minister posted a photo of himself with the note, writing in Hebrew on X, “At tonight’s prayer at the Western Wall for the victory of the people of Israel.”

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, chairman of the Religious Zionist Party, visited the Western Wall as well, accompanied by four generations of his family.

The minister posted a photo of his father, his son, his grandson and himself standing at the Western Wall Plaza.

In another tweet, Smotrich said it was a “privilege” to pray at the holy site “just moments before the opening of the ballot boxes.”

Moshe Feiglin, chairman of Zehut Party and No. 2 on the unified bloc with Smotrich’s faction, visited the Temple Mount on Monday with the candidates of his party.

“Here is the heart, from here everything begins,” Feiglin said in a Hebrew-language post on X.

“Just hours before the polling stations opened,” he wrote, “we ascended to pray together for the success of the People of Israel in the elections and for the victory of the national camp and the Jewish majority, out of the understanding that the Temple Mount is the heart and foundation, the place from which the People of Israel proclaims its message to the world, and that only through full sovereignty there can it fulfill its destiny.”

Also on Monday, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir arrived at the holy site as well, saying that he went there to pray for “the success of the right and the people of Israel.”

Yoaz Hendel, leader of the Reservists Party, which has merged with the New Economic Party, for the 26th Knesset election, prayed at the Western Wall on Tuesday morning, Election Day.