Binyamin Netanyahu’s faltering campaign for re-election as Israel’s prime minister appeared to be dealt another blow on Sunday evening when a rally called to support the Israeli right saw far fewer in attendance than a recent rally called by the left in the same Tel Aviv square.
Trailing his closest rival Yitzhak Herzog in the polls by up to four seats – and with two days to go before the country votes – Netanyahu delivered an uncompromising speech designed to appeal to an audience largely made up of national religious voters and settlers.
On the subject of settlements, Netanyahu vowed: “As long as the Likud is in power, there will be no concessions or withdrawals [from the occupied territories].”
And returning to one of his key themes in the media blitz he has launched in recent days, Netanyahu once again accused a conspiracy of foreign governments and Israel’s leftwing of plotting to bring him down.
Claiming a “massive fortune” in foreign funds had poured into Israel from abroad he warned that, because of this, the Right did not have enough votes to put together a strong governing coalition.
“If we don’t close the gap, there is a danger that a leftwing government will come into power, despite the fact that most of the public wants me as prime minister,” Netanyahu said.
Promising to rally a Likud party in the last days of the campaign that has struggled to motivate voters he said: “We will go street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood to gather the people to vote to bring a nationalist government.”
To cheers he added: “We are building in Jerusalem, in all Jerusalem. This isn’t the way of the left, this isn’t the way of Tzipi [Livni] and Bougie [Herzog]” – Netanyahu’s main rivals and leaders of the opposition Zionist Union.
Netanyahu was followed on the stage by far-right leader Naftali Bennett who promised that Israel would never cede “a centimeter of land” to the Palestinians. “A people cannot be an occupier in its own land,” he added.
But if Likud’s campaign organisers had hoped to eclipse the recent rally called by the left wing to call for Netanyahu’s replacement, they will have been disappointed with the visibly smaller turnout.
Whereas two weeks ago the streets on the edge of square were crowded this time they were largely empty.
Even of the thousands who did attend, many bussed in from cities across the country, a significant proportion wore T-shirts or carried banners supporting smaller pro-settler parties, while the crowd was bulked out with many teenagers too young to vote.
Among those who did come to the square to support Netanyahu many – like Netanyahu – blamed the prime minister’s problems on a conspiracy of the leftwing and foreign governments which the prime minister claims is trying to unseat him.
“I support Binyamin Netanyahu because he is a strong leader who will protect Israel from the Arabs and others who would threaten it,” said Eli Binyamin who had come to Tel Aviv from the city of Yavne. “It is a fact that foreign money has been invested to help bring Bibi down. That is why he is having problems.
“When you have a prize-winning race horse,” said Suzanne Madar, aged 59, “you don’t change it for a donkey with a broken leg.”
The rally was organised by Daniella Weiss, head of the Nachala organisation which promotes the construction of illegal Jewish outposts in the West Bank.
Netanyahu’s appearance was seen as a risky strategy by both associating him so closely with the pro-settlement movement in the last days of the campaign ahead of the vote on Tuesday and because it risks bolstering support for Bennett among rightwing voters.
It comes, too, amid a last-minute media blitz by Netanyahu to attempt to close the gap with the Zionist Union of Yitzhak Herzog which polls suggest is set to become the largest party in the Israeli Knesset, although in Israel’s electoral system that may still not be enough to bring in Herzog at the head of a new government.
As Netanyahu has toured television stations and newspapers in recent days after what has generally been judged a lacklustre campaign that has been remote form voters concerns, Netanyahu settled on a new strategy of accusing a shadowy coalition of the left and largely unnamed foreign governments and media interests of trying to depose him.
That has included a rambling Facebook post charging that “leftist activists and the foreign and international media are conspiring to get Tzipi [Livni] and ‘Buji’ [Herzog] elected via illegitimate means, using innuendo and foreign money.
Netanyahu repeated the claim on Israel’s Army Radio on Sunday, adding that unnamed “foreign powers” have spent millions of dollars as part of an orchestrated campaign against him.
“Those sending the money, they don’t think about our problems here in Israel,” he said. “They want one thing. They want to make sure the left rises to power.”
In another move calculated to bolster his faltering position on Sunday he also publicly offered the key finance ministry portfolio to a potentially king-making rival Moshe Kahlon in exchange for his support.
Kahlon, a former member of Netanyahu’s Likud party whose newly formed centrist party could be a deciding factor in who becomes prime minister, dismissed the offer as a pre-election stunt.
“Netanyahu already promised me the position of head of the Israel Land Authority and the finance ministry (in the past) and didn’t keep his word,” he wrote on Facebook, referring to the body which oversees land development.
“It’s flattering but it doesn’t solve the critical problems facing Israeli society,” he said.
“With 48 hours left until the election, there was no doubt we would see spin like this.”
