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TEHRAN \u2014 Israelis queued in numbers not seen in half a century on Tuesday, and Benjamin Netanyahu spent the afternoon begging his own voters to match them.<\/p>\n
Turnout reached 44.9 percent by 2 p.m., the fastest pace since 1973, the elections committee said. Polls were due to close at 10 p.m. local time, and no final survey had promised a winner.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Channel 13\u2019s last poll gave Gadi Eisenkot\u2019s Yashar 22 seats, Likud 19, Naftali Bennett\u2019s Together alliance about 14.5, and Avigdor Liberman\u2019s Yisrael Beiteinu 8. It put Netanyahu\u2019s bloc on 50 and the opposition on 54, both short of the 61 needed in the 120-seat Knesset.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Arab-led parties, projected at 14 to 16 seats, may hold the balance, and Eisenkot claimed he ruled them out. This is the sixth general election since 2019.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The day was ugly. Netanyahu filled X with emergency appeals, complaining that left-wing activists were \u201cstorming\u201d the polling stations and that Arab parties were heading to the polls \u201cin unprecedented numbers.\u201d Itamar Ben-Gvir urged right-wing voters to respond to the \u201ccrazy voting rate\u201d in Palestinian towns.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Haaretz reported that Likud had paid crews to film Arab voters outside polling places. Adalah, the Haifa legal center, described stalled admissions and missing Arabic ballot slips.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In Kafr Qara, one person had voted by 10 a.m. In Segev Shalom, 150 people stood outside a closed station. Ahmad Tibi blamed settlers for deliberate delays.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Those Netanyahu warned about make up a fifth of Israeli citizens. Roughly three million adult Palestinians, in Gaza, the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem), have no vote in the government that controls their borders and legal status.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The military closed every West Bank crossing for the day. Near Nablus, settlers beat a man in the town of Burqa as Israelis voted.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Same pack, different coats<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n On September 26, five opposition leaders signed a pact pledging a \u201cZionist, statesmanlike government.\u201d None accepts that Gaza is a genocide, and none has challenged Israeli strikes on Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, or Iran.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Their quarrel with Netanyahu is about management, corruption, and who failed on October 7. Daniel Levy, a former Israeli government adviser, says the treatment of Palestinians \u201cis a consensus among Zionist parties.\u201d Sociologist Yehouda Shenhav-Shahrabani sums up the field as \u201csame lady, different dress.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Iranians have a saying for similar situations: \u201cSage zard baradare shogqal ast.\u201d (The yellow dog is the jackal\u2019s brother.) The candidates amount to rabid yellow dogs and ravenous jackals.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0Iran, Lebanon and Gaza get the same offer<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n There is precedent. In 2021, Bennett and Lapid ended Netanyahu\u2019s twelve-year tenure. By August 2022, Israel was intensifying its campaign of terror and covert aggression against Iran while simultaneously bombing Gaza, killing dozens of Palestinians, including children, while illegal settlement expansion continued without interruption.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Iran shows it best. The United States and Israel attacked on February 28 in the middle of negotiations, and Trump has since urged Netanyahu to \u201cfinish the job.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Eisenkot calls the war unfinished and mocks the U.S.-Iran talks as \u201ca deal taking shape far from Israeli interests.\u201d Yair Lapid wants \u201cevery Iranian energy facility bombed, Kharg Island first.\u201d Bennett calls regime change \u201ca must.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Netanyahu posted an image of a mushroom cloud over an Israeli city and warned Tehran of \u201ca devastating blow.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The recent phase of the war on Lebanon began March 2, and by mid-August the health ministry counted more than 4,335 dead and nearly a million displaced.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Eisenkot wants troops to stay in the south, Bennett has said he would answer Hezbollah \u201cby striking Iran,\u201d and Liberman had described supposed limited operations as \u201ccomplete madness.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Israel holds about two-thirds of Gaza. 1,493 people have been killed since the so-called ceasefire, and Eisenkot promises \u201cto destroy Hamas within 18 months.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The records behind the slogans<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Israeli and Western media have ludicrously tried to sell Eisenkot as the sober general and a loving father. In 2008 he outlined \u201cthe Dahiyeh Doctrine,\u201d promising that any village used to fire on Israel would suffer what Beirut\u2019s southern suburb did in 2006: \u201cThis is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Goldstone report described the doctrine as civilian destruction for deterrence. This year he told a conference he had applied it through \u201cdisproportionate strikes,\u201d and in March he said it had never been more relevant for Lebanon.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Bennett\u2019s \u201cOctopus Doctrine\u201d claims Iran is the head and Hezbollah, Hamas and the rest are \u201ctentacles.\u201d He once urged shooting Palestinians who cross into Israel, and he cheered the 2025 strike on Doha.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Liberman said there were \u201cno innocents in Gaza,\u201d proposed transferring some 300,000 Arab citizens to a future Palestinian state, and backs cutting Gaza\u2019s water and electricity. Smotrich, who voted vowing to \u201cJudaize\u201d Hebron, wants Israel to \u201cgo to war\u201d in the West Bank.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Analyst Ahron Bregman expects a new prime minister to calm the mood and little more, since any government will mirror Israel\u2019s sharp turn to the right. Some analysts see room for E1 and settler violence.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Palestinians, Lebanese and Iranians have heard these men speak for years. They know what to expect. The yellow dog and the jackal wear different coats, but the governing machinery grinds forward with identical malice.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n