Tzipi Livni and Isaac Herzog on election campaign, 2014.Demotix/ Amir Levy. All rights reserved.Three factors define next Tuesday’s Israeli elections. First, unlike in previous elections, there is an intense discussion about economic and social issues over internal security matters. Second, the Palestinians have no expectation that a change in Israeli policy would mean a change of the official policy towards them. Third, the polls have become a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Likud, Netayanhu´s party, could lose the election for failing to deal with social issues such as high house prices, the quality of public services, unemployment, reducing poverty and increasing inequality. At the same time, the center-left has criticized the reduction of freedoms, the blocking of attempts by Barack Obama´s Administration to negotiate with the Palestinians, the two wars in Gaza without a clear objective, and Likud’s deteriorating ties with the United States and Europe.
But Netanyahu could also stay in power if the list of the center-left Zionist Unit led by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni fails to raise enough votes to build an alliance to form a government. The coalition could be set up with the help of centrist parties and the small leftist Meretz, finding an important potential new ally in the Joint List that for the first time gathers together the three Israeli-Arab parties (Arab Israelis number around 1,700,000 people, constituting 20% of the Israeli population).
