Israelis were voting in parliament elections on Tuesday, after a heated campaign focused on economic issues such as the high cost of living rather than fears of a nuclear Iran or the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking a fourth term in office, but it will likely take weeks of coalition talks after the vote to determine whether he stays in power or is being unseated by Isaac Herzog of the centrist Zionist Union.
In a last-minute appeal to his hard-line base, Netanyahu said on Monday that a Palestinian state would not be established on his watch, going back on long-standing promises to the United States. The remarks could further strain troubled ties with Washington.
In Tuesday’s balloting, voters are electing a 120-member parliament, casting ballots for a party list, rather than individual candidates. After the vote, it typically takes weeks of negotiations for a governing coalition to be formed.
Netanyahu has governed for the past six years and has long been the most dominant personality in Israeli politics. He has swung further to the right in the final stages of the campaign, appealing to his base.
After voting on Tuesday, Netanyahu ruled out a coalition with Herzog and reiterated in an interview with Israel TV’s Channel 10 that a Palestinian state would not be established on his watch.
On Monday, he had first told the news website that turning over captured territory to the Palestinians would clear the way for Islamic extremists to take control and attack Israel. “Whoever ignores that is burying his head in the sand. The left is doing that, burying its head in the sand time after time,” he said in the video interview.
When asked if that means a Palestinian state will not be established if he is elected, Netanyahu replied, “Indeed.”
