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Candidates clash with Israeli elections five days away
Candidates clash with Israeli elections five days away
i24NEWS English
3.3K views • 54 likes • 13 comments
11 hours ago • 6:44 min
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[00:00]
With just 5 days until Israel's
[00:02]
election, National Security Minister
[00:04]
Idomar Bengir is gaining GROUND IN THE
[00:07]
POLLS.
[00:08]
>> His far-right Jewish power party is
[00:11]
polling at around 8 to 10 seats with his
[00:14]
uncompromising nationalist message
[00:16]
resonating particularly strongly among
[00:18]
young voters.
[00:20]
In a government that I'm a member of,
[00:22]
Jews will visit the Temple Mount. We
[00:24]
make it clear to Hamas, we don't give
[00:26]
in. We don't surrender.
[00:28]
Ben Gier has built his political appeal
[00:30]
around a hardline approach to security
[00:33]
and Jewish national identity, attracting
[00:35]
voters who see him as someone willing to
[00:37]
challenge the political establishment.
[00:40]
>> I think what he represents most is
[00:43]
Jewish pride. So he comes forth as
[00:46]
something very courageous and and and
[00:49]
and
[00:51]
unapologetic.
[00:52]
And that is something that really um
[00:54]
spoke to me. But elsewhere on the right,
[00:57]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is
[00:59]
facing a different challenge. Former
[01:01]
General Ofer Winter and Moti Lightner,
[01:04]
leader of the ultraorththodox Hatsibur
[01:07]
Haharedi party, are refusing to withdraw
[01:09]
from the race despite pressure from
[01:11]
Netanyahu and his allies. Both risk
[01:14]
falling below Israel's 3.25%
[01:17]
electoral threshold, meaning votes cast
[01:19]
for them could fail to translate into
[01:21]
parliamentary seats. And with
[01:22]
Netanyahu's block seeking the 61 seats
[01:25]
needed to form a majority, those
[01:27]
potentially lost votes could prove
[01:29]
significant when Israelis head to the
[01:30]
polls on Tuesday.
[01:33]
So for more insight, it's a pleasure to
[01:35]
welcome political analyst Gil Huffman
[01:37]
joining us today from Jerusalem. Good to
[01:39]
see you, Gil. So 5 days until voting day
[01:42]
and President Isaac Herzog is today
[01:45]
warning that inflammatory political
[01:47]
rhetoric can lead to deadly violence. He
[01:50]
was of course speaking on the
[01:52]
commemoration or the yacht site for
[01:54]
former prime minister Yitkagrain who was
[01:56]
murdered 31 years ago and Gil much has
[02:00]
been made about the leaders who were not
[02:02]
at the memorial ceremony. Tell us more.
[02:06]
Yes, for now several years the prime
[02:08]
minister has declined to attend this
[02:11]
event which used to be a unifying event
[02:13]
where the right, left and center would
[02:15]
attend. And uh Netanyao uh has I guess
[02:19]
decided that it would not help him
[02:21]
politically to be at an event of a prime
[02:24]
minister whose legacy was making
[02:27]
agreements with Yaser Arafat and and
[02:29]
giving up land and there were suicide
[02:32]
bombings uh near the end of his life and
[02:36]
I understand that uh but still the only
[02:39]
representation of the government was
[02:42]
minister Gila Gamliel and then from the
[02:45]
opposition
[02:46]
the opposition leader is supposed to
[02:48]
attend. The Leid, he didn't attend
[02:50]
either. I guess it could hurt his party
[02:55]
Bennett if he attended. And the Knesset
[02:57]
speaker didn't come representing the
[02:58]
Knesset either. So this event only a few
[03:02]
days before the election um is really
[03:06]
showing how divided Israel is right now.
[03:10]
Talking about divisions within the
[03:12]
political echelon, several opposition
[03:14]
groups and critics are accusing the
[03:16]
prime minister of politicizing the
[03:19]
threat of war. Others of course making
[03:21]
clear that these threats are real and
[03:24]
imminent. As predicted, the polls show
[03:26]
neither coalition block or the
[03:28]
opposition block has enough seats to
[03:30]
form a government. Your insights, how is
[03:32]
the security issue factoring in to the
[03:36]
polls that we are looking at right now?
[03:39]
Well, Netanyahu needs Israelis to vote
[03:41]
on security, even though October 7th was
[03:44]
unquestionably a failure, and there have
[03:46]
been successes on the seven military
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fronts since then that he can take
[03:51]
credit for justifiably. And uh if enough
[03:54]
Israelis believe that he needs to be
[03:56]
rewarded for that, then he's going to
[03:59]
remain at least a caretaker prime
[04:00]
minister until another election or
[04:03]
perhaps even be able to form a
[04:05]
government. Uh it's a risk uh that
[04:07]
Netanyahu is taking. Uh but his polling
[04:10]
clearly indicates this is what he needs
[04:12]
to be doing. It's not the first time
[04:14]
that Netanyahu has run what would be
[04:17]
called a scare campaign uh to the people
[04:20]
of Israel. The interview that he gave to
[04:22]
I24 a couple days ago, the underlying
[04:26]
message I got from it is vote for me or
[04:28]
we're all going to die. and he's going
[04:31]
to continue trying to ram that message
[04:33]
through the heads of right-wing voters
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and and or at least uh perhaps those
[04:39]
considering a right-wing party that's
[04:41]
not in his block uh between now and
[04:43]
October 27th.
[04:46]
>> Well, the question remains so many
[04:49]
asking which leaders are in a position
[04:52]
to make sure that the country does feel
[04:55]
safe. We wait to see how people cast
[04:58]
their votes. Gil, as you well know,
[05:00]
moves are also a foot to beg some of the
[05:02]
smaller parties to drop out of the race
[05:04]
like Benny Gans did in recent days. But
[05:07]
it seems others like Israel and the
[05:09]
publiced party are staying the course.
[05:12]
What do you read into that? How could
[05:14]
that alter the way things unfold on the
[05:17]
27th of October?
[05:19]
>> Everyone's playing the game, Bonita. The
[05:21]
Netao needs to look like he's making an
[05:23]
effort to unify the right and not have
[05:26]
votes wasted on the right room. We have
[05:27]
to remind our audience that any party
[05:29]
that doesn't get 3.25% of the vote,
[05:32]
which is about 170,000 votes, their
[05:34]
votes get thrown away and are not
[05:36]
counted whatsoever. And the leaders of
[05:38]
those smaller parties need to say that
[05:40]
they're staying in. It's too late. Now,
[05:43]
Benny Gans left right before the
[05:45]
balloting started in the army and
[05:49]
presumably over winter is counting on
[05:51]
votes from uh the soldiers and and other
[05:55]
young people who might be more
[05:58]
right-wing after years of war but may be
[06:00]
angry at the ultraorththodox after years
[06:04]
of war. Uh those are votes where uh
[06:07]
you've got winter competing against the
[06:09]
reserveist party of Yaz Hendel and
[06:12]
against Benvver. And so uh right now it
[06:16]
doesn't look like that effort, you know,
[06:18]
they talked to three more rabbis today.
[06:20]
They're the biggest rabbis in religious
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Zionism alive today and and and over
[06:24]
winter said he's still staying. and uh
[06:27]
so he will and we'll see who's making a
[06:30]
mistake here
[06:32]
>> and helping us make sense of all these
[06:34]
developments. Always appreciate your
[06:36]
insights. Thank you so much Gil Huffman
[06:37]
live from Jerusalem. Thanks Gil.
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Candidates clash with Israeli elections five days away
