Israel holds fifth election in four years as Netanyahu attempts to regain power Transcript

And now to another major overseas election tomorrow in Israel. As that country’s fifth election in four years will get underway, Israelis will have to make a choice between very different worldviews. Many voters are understandably weary of going to the polls yet again. But as special correspondent Nurit Ben reports, this election is likely to have far reaching consequences.

It’s a decade long tradition. Groups of usually older Israelis getting together for coffee, maybe some pastries and a heated political argument. Israelis call them parliaments, and for well over a decade, one name, love him or hate him, has been front and center, Benjamin Netanyahu. Now with the country hours away from its fifth election in less than four years, one question still seems to be on everyone’s lips: Are you with Bibi or against him?

We have Bibi Netanya, who’s one of a kind.

Bibi is dangerous to the state of Israel. He is destroying democracy.

This time, the stakes are higher. Depending which block comes out on top, Israel’s government could be center left, or the most right wing the country has ever seen.

(01:13)
Yaakov Katz is the editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post.

If you ask people from the center left, they’ll tell you that democracy is at stake, that there are forces within the right wing camp that are extreme, that would like to change the rule of law in the criminal justice system in Israel. On the other hand, if you talk to people on the right side of the map, they fear a government with Arab parties, who are believed to be extreme and anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish and anti-Israel, and therefore the Jewish character of Israel’s at stake.

Just last summer, things looked different. A motley crew of right wing and left, centrists and an Arab party all put their differences aside and struck a deal. Together, they unseated the longest serving prime minister in Israel’s history. But like others before it, that fragile coalition fell apart and Israelis are heading to the polls yet again. After a brief stint in the opposition and with a corruption trial underway, Netanyahu has been full speed on the campaign trail trying to reclaim the coveted seat.

[inaudible 00:02:18], wake up.

And he’s still the one to beat. For well over a decade, the right wing Likud has been a party of only one man, and Netanyahu supporters back him with ironclad loyalty.

I believe we’ve done huge things for Israel, but I think there are more things to do. To block Iran for good. I think we will have peace with Saudi Arabia and I will bring it about. And with that, essentially bring an end to the Arab Israeli conflict.

His biggest challenger, interim Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, a former journalist who dove into politics with a splash in 2013 and in a country where left wing parties have all but disappeared. He’s become the face of the Israeli center.

It’s possible to fight and win in the fight over Israeli democracy because it is under threat.

But in Israel’s coalition system, no one crosses the finish line without support from several other parties. This time around though, ones to watch range from far right nationalists surging in popularity, to Arab faction struggling to get their own voters to turn out. Take the far right head of the Jewish Power Party, Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist with a decades old taste for provocation, calling for the assassination of then Premiere Yitzhak Rabin in the 90s or just this month, pulling a gun amid clashes in the contested East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

(03:42)
Just a few elections ago, he was shunned by Israel’s right wing, including Netanyahu for being too extreme. Fast forward to election number five, that fringe politician could be the king maker and a major part of a Netanyahu government. His rise was helped by the king of the right wing himself, who brokered a deal for a joint list of far right parties. Together, they’re on track to be the third biggest party in parliament, paving Netanyahu’s path to victory and backing highly controversial changes to the legal system that would put a quick end to his trial. But in a campaign speech last week, Lapid warned those changes are just the tip of the iceberg.

What’s truly important to them is to annex three million Palestinians, to limit women’s rights, to limit LGBT rights, a dark, extremist racist nation with no legal limits.

On the other side of the political spectrum are Israel’s Arab parties who also play a crucial role in how it all pans out. Arab citizens of Israel make up about 20% of the population. How they vote, and if they vote, could stop Netanyahu or help hand him the top job. Israel’s short-lived government included an Arab party Ra’am for the very first time, but there’s a lot of frustration that they didn’t change much. And less than half of all Arab voters are expected to cast a ballot. Still, others feel too much is on the line to stay home.

We in the Arab sector have to vote so that we can affect change. If we don’t vote, we’ll have racists and we can’t live together with them.

Aida Touma-Sliman, a member of one leading Arab party, told us what it would take for them to join the next coalition.

For the first time, we are needed in order to solve this problem. So it’s our time to ask for the real, very basic, let’s say demands, not budgets, but equal citizenship.

How those parties fare will decide if it’s Netanyahu or Lapid who grasps a majority in the 120 seat parliament, but yet another stalemate could be in the cards.

Israel has been in an endless cycle of elections for the last three years that primarily have to do with one issue. And that issue is what will happen with Benjamin Netanyahu? And there’s a lot of parties in the Israeli parliament and in the political system that refuse to sit with him.

Those include longtime opponents and longtime allies. For them, Netanyahu has overstayed his welcome, refusing to step down while facing charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. When polls open tomorrow, just one question will matter: How much do Israelis care? For a public dragged to the voting booth again and again, the answer might be, not much. But a lot is at stake. And Israeli voters have power to help determine the course of their nation. The question is, will they use it? For the PBS News Hour, I’m Nurit Ben in Tel Aviv.