Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rival Benny Gantz were wrapping up another bitter election campaign on Sunday, before voters cast their ballots on Monday for the third time in 12 months.
Mr Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, has been charged on several counts of corruption but is battling fiercely to maintain his grip on power.
After inconclusive elections in April and September, latest opinion polls put the two opponents neck and neck in a gruelling political triathlon.
According to the projections, Mr Netanyahu’s Likud and Mr Gantz’s Blue and White alliance would each win 33 seats in the 120-member Knesset. That result would be almost identical to the previous round, after which each leader tried and failed to form a government.
In television interviews aired separately on Saturday night, Mr Gantz and Mr Netanyahu ripped into each another.
Mr Netanyahu told private Channel 12 that his opponent, a decorated former head of Israel’s armed forces, was “not fit to be prime minister” of Israel. “He is weak, he’s not a leader,” he said.
Mr Gantz was asked if he would join a coalition under Mr Netanyahu if the third round also failed to produce a clear winner. “There is no situation in which I will sit under Netanyahu as prime minister when he has three charges against him,” he replied.
Read the article in The Australian (AFP).