The early voting has become a referendum on "Bibi", the nickname given to the outgoing conservative Prime Minister, in power since 2009.
At 65, Benjamin Netanyahu threw all his forces in battle. Yesterday, he promised that if re-elected, "there would be no Palestinian state and that there will however include more settlements in East Jerusalem." An even more right shot bar than usual to try to entice voters extremist parties of the Jewish Home of Naftali Bennett or Israel Beiteinu Avigdor Lieberman, yet its closest allies. Netanyahu wants the best bulwark against safe nuclear ambitions of Iran or Islamist threats.
But the favorite in the polls, it is Isaac Herzog. The Labour leader allied with the centrist Tzipi Livni, former minister sacked Netanyahu to form the Zionist Union. This movement of the center-left campaigned on the high cost of living and the economic and social problems such as housing crisis.
Whatever the winner tonight, it will need to create a strong coalition to govern with a majority of 61 seats out of 120. The right parties should be more than the left in the 20th Knesset since the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948.
A kingmaker appears increasingly. This is Moshe Kahlon. Former member of the Likud, he created his Koulanou center-right party that is credited with ten seats which earned him the attentions of Netanyahu and Herzog have both promised the Ministry of Finance.
These elections will of course influence the future in the Palestinian territories. Netanyahu's sensational statements provoked clashes in the West Bank this morning.
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