Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his main challenger, Labor chairman Yitzhak Herzog, engaged in last minute verbal jousting ahead of the ballot boxes closing at 10 p.m. on Tuesday night.
Netanyahu clarified that if he is given the nod by President Reuven Rivlin to get first crack at forming a coalition government, he intends to create a right-wing government.
“A leftist government will be dependent on the Arab list and will submit the whole way” in making concessions, warned Netanyahu. “A unity government will not be formed with Labor, there is no way to bridge the gaps between us.”
The prime minister’s mention of the joint Arab list comes after Arab party head Ayman Odeh said “after the elections, we will listen to what Herzog has to say and then we will decide.”
The Arab list has been showing strongly in polls, garnering between 11 and 13 seats and coming in as the third largest party in numerous polls, meaning Herzog could indeed find himself dependent on a coalition with them to reach the needed 61 seat majority in forming a coalition.
“The revolution is in our hands, go out and vote,” urged Herzog during a visit to Modi’in. “This is a fateful battle on the future of the state.”
Turning his sights on Netanyahu, who warned earlier that massive Arab voter turnout threatened the future of a nationalist government, Herzog said “Netanyahu’s panic is embarrassing.”
“Those who want a prime minister who cares about citizens and doesn’t incite or discriminate needs to get up, go out and vote,” said Herzog. “Let it not turn out tonight that we get a radical government of Netanyahu and (Baruch) Marzel who will break apart Israel. There is still time to get up and vote.”
Herzog’s choice of words in saying the right will “break apart” Israel may be seen as ironic, given that in late 2013 he himself revealed his plan is to divide Jerusalem and give up massive swathes of Judea and Samaria in forming a Palestinian state.
As for Marzel, the Yachad-Ha’am Itanu joint list with his Otzma Yehudit party has been appraised by many as being the key for a right-wing coalition, given that if it fails to pass the threshold percentage Likud may be unable to form a coalition.
Walla! reported that the Yachad list is a few thousand votes short of passing the threshold with an hour left to go, although there are no official statistics until the voting ends and the counting begins.
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