Netanyahu races to unify Israel's right wing in bid to avert election defeat
JERUSALEM, Sept 8 - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to consolidate Israel's fractious right-wing parties ahead of a Tuesday deadline in order to avoid an election loss forecast by opinion polls.
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Netanyahu → race → polls
Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, is seeking a record seventh term in the October 27 election, but he has faced pressure over the Hamas-led 2023 attack on Israel and subsequent wars in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon, and surveys have for months been pointing to a defeat for his nationalist-religious coalition.
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surveys → serve → coalition
Netanyahu has therefore been pressing allies to merge their candidate lists and raise their chances of gaining parliament seats, so far with only partial success.
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Netanyahu → press → success
Their deadline, when running parties must submit their final lists of candidates, expires on Tuesday night.
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parties → run → night
"When we unite, we win.
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we → unite → ?
When we splinter, we lose," Netanyahu said in an August 30 interview on Channel 14, a pro-Netanyahu television station.
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Netanyahu → splinter → Channel
"I am doing all I can, as I did in the previous election, to unite these parties.
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I → do → parties
"
RIGHT-WING NEWCOMER WORRIES NETANYAHU
No single party has ever won an outright majority in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel's parliament, making coalition governments the norm and sometimes giving as many as a dozen parties a chance of winning seats.
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governments → worry → seats
To do so, they must pass a 3.25% vote threshold, equal to four seats, meaning smaller parties risk drawing votes without gaining a seat.
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parties → do → seat
Polls suggest Netanyahu's Likud party stands to lose a third of its parliamentary power.
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party → suggest → power
Though it may still remain the largest party, winning 20-23 seats, Netanyahu would likely need his coalition allies including the far-right Jewish Power and Religious Zionism parties to remain in office.
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allies → remain → office
Religious Zionism, headed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, has been polling between zero and six seats, down from seven currently.
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Zionism → head → seven
With Netanyahu's blessing — and his help, according to two political sources — it merged its list on September 1 with that of Zehut, a small party headed by former far-right libertarian and Likud member, Moshe Feiglin.
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it → accord → Feiglin
But National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has rebuffed Netanyahu's calls for his Jewish Power party, which currently holds six seats, to run with Religious Zionism, as it did at his behest in the last election.
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it → rebuff → election
Ben-Gvir has argued that the parties would be stronger running separately.
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parties → argue → ?
Feiglin's views on the Palestinians are similar to those of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, whose calls to annex the occupied West Bank and depopulate Gaza have drawn international ire.
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calls → annex → ire
Though such foreign criticism may have little impact on the vote, another worry for Netanyahu is political newcomer Ofer Winter, a right-wing former brigadier general whose views are largely aligned with those of Smotrich.
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views → have → Smotrich
But Winter has rejected calls to merge his party, saying he will not run with anyone who may be responsible for the security failure that allowed for the 2023 Hamas-led attack.
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that → reject → attack
Winter has cast the election as a protest vote and says he will draw right-wingers who are seeking a fresh start.
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who → cast → start
Latest polls show him at four seats or none.
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polls → show → seats
"He chose to go separately and we are now in danger," Netanyahu told Channel 14, arguing that he risks "wasting" crucial right-wing votes if he does not win enough seats to enter the Knesset.
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he → choose → Knesset
HAWKISH IMAGE SHATTERED
The parliamentary system delivered a decisive victory for Netanyahu in the previous 2022 election, when a splintered centre-left was knocked out by a unified right-wing alliance.
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left → shatter → alliance
Netanyahu's hawkish image was shattered by the security failing of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, with critics angered by his refusal to take responsibility, and by wars in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon that brought military successes but no lasting victories.
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that → shatter → successes
"He's never faced anything like what he faces now.
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he → face → what
Everyone in Israel shares a sense of historical crisis, and his name is all over it.
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name → share → it
And he knows this," said Amotz Asa-El, a political analyst with the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
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El → know → Jerusalem
With Israel's military death toll at its highest in decades, Netanyahu's concessions toward ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies who want many of their men exempt from conscript military service have further alienated his traditional supporters.
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many → want → supporters
Netanyahu's strongest rival at the moment is Gadi Eisenkot, Israel's former military chief, who lost a son in Gaza.
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who → lose → Gaza
His Yashar party has been on a steady rise for months, matching and sometimes overtaking Likud in the polls, though his path to power is still unclear.
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path → match → power
Netanyahu's age is a factor too, said Asa-El.
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El → say → ?
"When he first ran in '96, he was the Israeli Kennedy.
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he → run → 96
Now he's running as the Israeli Biden."
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he → run → Biden
The Aporia
