Battle lines drawn in Israel ahead of Tuesday's vote

In less than 24 hours the state of Israel will go to the polls in what is one of the most bitterly contested elections. The polls come amidst fragile times in West Asia with Israel embroiled in the Iran conflict and facing heat on its southern border in its skirmish with Hezbollah.

For incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu, the narrative is simple- a projection that only he can keep the Iranian threat at bay especially with his endorsement from US President Trump. Netanyahu's coalition comprises his own Likud Party, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's pro-settler Religious ⁠Zionism and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's far-right party Jewish Power.

His closest rival is the former military chief Gadi Eisenkot who has projected himself as a security hawk with an image of a political outsider.

The others include the alliance led by former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, former defence minister Avigdor Lieberman and a four-party coalition with a significant representation of the Arab minority in Israel headed by Yair Golan.

Israel uses a party-list proportional representation system. Under this system, voters cast their ballots for lists of candidates, and each list receives a number of seats in the Knesset proportional to its share of the vote.

Israel has an electoral threshold: only lists that receive at least 3.25% of the valid votes participate in the allocation of Knesset seats. The Knesset is made up of 120 Members.

After the elections the President of the State, in this case Israel Herzog, assigns the task of forming a government to a Member of the Knesset who may then present the government they have formed to the Knesset. For the government to be established it must win a plurality in a “vote of confidence” held in the Knesset. To date, all governments formed in Israel have been coalition governments.

Quoting Right-wing activist Yuval Blumberg's statements, Netanyahu's post read, “The State of Israel is in real and tangible existential danger. If the Iranians acquire nuclear weapons, nothing will ever be the same again. Everything is so trivial compared to the existential threat of Iran and the Shiite axis."

The battle-lines are drawn firmly, consummate political survivor Bibi Netanyahu versus a former Military Chief in a no-holds barred contest. The victory of either could well reshape not just the politics of Israel but also the situation in West Asia. - ANI