Polls opened nation-wide Tuesday morning as Israel's 2019 Knesset election is underway in what is widely seen as a race between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kahol Lavan leader Benny Gantz.
10,000 polling stations are open nation-wide with some 6.3 million eligible voters. Hundreds of thousands are expected to warm the beaches, malls and amusement parks on the national holiday in which Israelis get the day off, Haaretz reported.
The election will be a tight race. The governing coalition led by Netanyahu currently controls 61 out of a possible 120 seats. Netanyahu’s Likud party has forged an alliance with a far-right ultranationalist faction in an effort to retain power.
His main opposition is the recently-formed Blue and White alliance, headed by retired army chief Benny Gantz and former news anchor and journalist Yair Lapid. Gantz is perhaps the only individual with the kind of strong security credentials that can rival Netanyahu, and he is positioning himself as an honest alternative, The Interpreter reported.
Who is Benny Gantz?
Former military Chief of Staff Benny Gantz has emerged as the most serious and toughest rival to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the upcoming Israeli national election, Haaretz reported.
Gantz, 59, is a popular former armed forces chief and a political newcomer. He joined forces with the right-wing Moshe Yaalon, a former defence minister and the centre-left former finance minister Yair Lapid to form the new centrist Kahol Lavan party.
He has signalled he would make territorial concessions toward the Palestinians but has also sidestepped the question of Palestinian statehood. His party is also running on a platform promising to impose term limits on the prime minister (Netanyahu is seeking a 5th term), invest more in education, allow public transportation on Shabbat and enact civil marriages.
Gantz has attacked Netanyahu for his role in the bribes-for-submarine scandal – aka Case 3000 - his campaign clearly hoped would turn the tide against Netanyahu and his “Mr. Security” image. Netanyahu seized on the alleged hacking of Gantz’s cellphone to insinuate that Gantz is no less than a security risk prone to Iranian blackmail.
Gantz insists that another government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu would only last eight months until the prime minister is indicted in the corruption cases against him, the sources said. The attorney general has already moved to indict Netanyahu, pending a hearing.
