Fourth Israeli election likely outcome of third poll in year

Israelis go to the polls on Monday in the country’s third election within a year and all the indications are that the political impasse is likely to continue.

The polls over the last week showed the momentum is with Binyamin Netanyahu and his Likud party but his bloc of right-wing and religious parties is still projected to fall short of the 61 seats required for a Knesset parliament majority.

The chances of his main challenger, former top general Benny Gantz, leader of the centrist Blue and White party, forming the next government are even slimmer.

He would require all the parties outside Mr Netanyahu’s bloc to join together in a coalition but the right-wing, secular Yisrael Beiteinu, led by former defence minister Avigdor Liberman, and the predominantly-Arab Joint List have made it clear that they will not be in the same alliance.

Thousands try to enter Greece after Turkey opens borders

---

Human rights groups criticise EU over Libyan naval deployment

---

Greece says Parthenon marbles return not linked to Brexit talks

---

Draining the swamp? Trump in spree of clemency for rich white men

---

Most politicians and voters are dreading the prospect of a fourth election but such a scenario is entirely possible.

Bribery and fraud

The fact that Mr Netanyahu will stand trial in two weeks’ time on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust has failed to dent the support of his base. If anything, Mr Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has succeeded in using the impending trial to shore up his support among the Likud faithful, repeating the message that he is the innocent victim of a left-wing/media witch hunt aimed at toppling him from power.

“Only a big Likud will form a government and prevent a fourth election,” Mr Netanyahu said, in his final election rally. “It’s either a Bibi government or a Gantz government that is dependent on Ahmed Tibi,” he said, referring to one of the Joint List Knesset members. “Will such a government operate in Gaza? Will it operate against Iran in Syria? Will it apply sovereignty [to West Bank settlements]?”

Citizen ‘hate’

Mr Gantz, in his final rally, warned of the danger of another Netanyahu government. “The government of Israel is headed by a person who conducts himself like the Mafia. And that is only the tip of the iceberg of what they’re planning for after the elections: an extremist, divided state whose citizens hate one another.”

Fourteen polling stations have been set up around the country for people who are being quarantined at home due to concern that they may have been infected with the coronavirus.

On Sunday, Mr Gantz warned that the Likud would spread false reports on election day of coronavirus in Blue and White strongholds to keep voters at home.

Voting closes at 8pm (Irish time) when exit poll predictions from Israel’s three main TV stations will be published. The first actual results will be available in the early hours of Tuesday morning.