JERUSALEM—As Israel heads to its fifth election in four years,
Benjamin Netanyahu
has been relentlessly campaigning across the country from the back of a delivery truck outfitted as a mobile campaign stage, imploring voters to come out on election day. Some call it the Bibi-bus, using Mr. Netanyahu’s famous nickname.
“Come and vote,” he told supporters in the central Israeli city of Rehovot this month. “Convince your friends, family and neighbors.”
Mr. Netanyahu, 73 years old, is trying to stage a political comeback that would provide a capstone to more than 30 years in public life. Polls show he is within striking distance of becoming Israel’s prime minister for a sixth time in Tuesday’s election, adding to his record 15 years as premier and further cementing his legacy as a political powerhouse.
While Mr. Netanyahu is known by many abroad as a skillful diplomat and orator, in Israel it is his shrewd political skills that have kept him atop his country’s leadership longer than anyone before him.
“For his supporters, Netanyahu is something between a savior touched by God and a persecuted saint,” said
Ben Caspit,
who has written two biographies on Mr. Netanyahu. “He has political skills like no one else.”
Still, Mr. Netanyahu is facing several challenges. The Israeli electorate remains divided over whether he should stay in public office as he faces a continuing corruption trial. Voters are exhausted by yet another election that is expected to produce the same outcome. The race is tight, with polls showing no party will win an outright majority.
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Each side will struggle to cobble together a government with the slimmest of parliamentary majorities, polls show. Some of the most recent polls showed Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition with a slight edge of 61 out of 120 seats needed for a majority in the 120-seat Parliament, or Knesset. Other polls showed an outright 60-60 tie. His main opponent, Prime…
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