Israel ex-security chief backs Labor as election heats up

With only three days left before Israelis head to the polls on Tuesday, the Zionist Union camp appears to be cementing its lead over Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party.

The latest polls, taken on Friday night, put Labor Party leader and Zionist Camp co-head Isaac Herzog two to four seats ahead.

Netanyahu has been described as feeling the pressure, with commentators suggesting that he may have shunned recent press opportunities out of fear that he might be heckled by voters.

While the PM has made security issues a cornerstone of his campaign, voters seem to be prioritising issues like government spending and social and economic problems.

Netanyahu’s chances also took a knock this week when Youval Diskin, a former head of the Shin Bet security agency, publicly backed Herzog.

"Why is this the moment to give Herzog a chance? Mainly because Netanyahu has failed in almost every area and because Herzog is the better alternative," Diskin, who headed the Shin Bet from 2005 to 2011, wrote on Facebook.

He went on to criticise the premier on his safety record, the 2014 Gaza war which had “no decisive result" and also his handling of the peace talks that were "conducted with astonishing ineffectiveness". Diskin also slammed the prisoner swap in 2011 in which Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was released in return for hundreds of Palestinian inmates. "Netanyahu freed dozens of terrorists, several of them dangerous," Diskin wrote.

Analysts believe that the next three days will now be crucial, with some 20 percent of Israeli voters still undecided. Likud is planning a last-minute campaign push and trying to rally the party faithful to turn out to the polls in large numbers. Large-scale rallies are planned for Sunday.

Coalition building  

Friday's polls had put the Joint List – made up of all the parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel - in third place, with 13 seat. Centre-right Yesh Atid, headed by Yair Lapid, meanwhile was projected to pick up 12 seats and is being tipped as a possible kingmaker.

Neither of the two main camps are expected to secure a majority, which will leave them struggling to build a coalition that has more than 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.

Lapid, a former finance minister whose resignation in November last year helped bring down the last Netanyahu-led government, earlier this week said that there would be “zero” chance of his party backing the PM.

“The chances of us recommending Netanyahu are zero,” Lapid said. “Netanyahu has lost the state of Israel.”

However, Lapid fell short of endorsing the Zionist Camp which is headed by Herzog and former Justice MinisterTzipi Livni who also walked out of the Netanyahu government. Livni and Herzog struck a deal whereby Herzog would serve the first two years of the term, and her the last two.

Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu party and Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu, which both participated in the outgoing Netanyahu-led government, have also not endorsed a candidate for prime minister as yet.

On Saturday, Interior Minister and Likud Party member Gilad Erdan lashed out at the two right-wing leaders saying that “the public must get answers from these two regarding the recommendations they will make to President Rivlin as to their choice for prime minister.”

“The Likud is concerned by Kahlon’s candidate for Defence Minister Yoav Galant’s statements which indicated that Kahlon will close a deal with Herzog. Thus voting Kahlon will bring a left-wing government headed by Herzog and Livni,” said Erdan.