Israelis are voting, deciding between Benjamin Netanyahu and centrist rival Benny Gantz

(Image credit: Ariel Schalit/AFP/Getty Images)

published 9 April 2019

Israelis are voting in national elections on Tuesday, and the election has shaped up to be a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is vying for a history-making fifth term, the last four consecutive. If he wins, 69-year-old Netanyahu will overtake founding father David Ben-Gurion as the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history.

Netanyahu's right-wing Likud Party and the new centrist Blue and White alliance, led by former Israeli military chief Benny Gantz, are neck-and-neck in the polls. Gantz's party, formed in February with other military leaders and popular Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, took a late lead in the polls, but Netanyahu is still favored to form the next coalition government. No party has ever won a majority of the Knesset's 120 seats.

Gantz is running as an honest, clean, moderate alternative to Netanyahu, who's dogged by multiple corruption investigations he calls "witch hunts." Netanyahu's campaign has focused on stoking enthusiasm in his conservative nationalist base.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.