{"id":40857,"date":"2019-09-15T12:27:45","date_gmt":"2019-09-15T12:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40857"},"modified":"2019-09-15T12:27:45","modified_gmt":"2019-09-15T12:27:45","slug":"iran-us-bases-and-aircraft-carriers-within-range-of-its-missiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40857","title":{"rendered":"Iran: US bases and aircraft carriers within range of its missiles"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Embattled Israeli PM fights for survival in do-over election<\/h2>\n
\n

\"\"\n<\/div>\n

\n

\nUpdated 17 min 15 sec ago <\/p>\n

\n

\nJERUSALEM: A visibly frantic Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the fight of his political life as the country heads to national elections for the second time this year.
With Netanyahu locked in a razor tight race and facing the likelihood of criminal corruption charges, a decisive victory in Tuesday\u2019s vote may be the only thing to keep him out of the courtroom. A repeat of the deadlock in April\u2019s election, or a victory by challenger Benny Gantz, could spell the end of the career of the man who has led the country for the past decade.
Netanyahu\u2019s daily campaign stunts have helped him set the national agenda \u2014 a tactic the media-savvy Israeli leader has perfected throughout his three decades in national politics. But it may well be the things he can\u2019t control \u2014 including a former political ally turned rival and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip \u2014 that bring him down.
Throughout the abbreviated campaign, Netanyahu has seemed to create new headlines at will. One day he is jetting off for meetings with world leaders. The next, he claims to unveil a previously undisclosed Iranian nuclear site. Then he vows to annex parts of the occupied West Bank. Nearly every day, he issues unfounded warnings about the country\u2019s Arab minority \u201cstealing\u201d the election, drawing accusations of incitement and racism.
\u201cNetanyahu is always worried. That\u2019s why he has survived this long,\u201d said Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist at the Haaretz newspaper and author of a recent biography of Netanyahu.
\u201cEvery election campaign he enters convinced that he can lose, and that\u2019s how he fights it, with his back to the wall,\u201d he said.
By many counts, the strategy has worked. Netanyahu, the country\u2019s longest-serving prime minister, has dominated the political discourse during a campaign that is seen as a referendum on his rule. His opponents, meanwhile, have been forced to react to his ever-shifting tactics.
Netanyahu has turned to a familiar playbook \u2014 presenting himself as a global statesman who is uniquely qualified to lead the country while also portraying himself as the underdog, lashing out at perceived domestic enemies who he claims are conspiring against him.
During a Channel 12 TV interview late Saturday, Netanyahu appeared distressed and combative. He smirked, shook his head and raised his voice as he accused the media of \u201cinciting\u201d against him, angrily rejected the legal case against him and issued dire warnings that his Likud party will lose. \u201cVictory is not in our pocket,\u201d he said.
At the same time, he claimed the country understands that only he can lead. His campaign ads portray him as being in a \u201cdifferent league\u201d and show him embracing his friend, President Donald Trump, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin, India\u2019s Narendra Modi and other world leaders. Last week, Netanyahu rushed to Sochi, Russia, for talks with Putin about Iran.
\u201cThe public is saying, \u2018We understand that you are a world-class leader,\u2019\u201d he told Channel 12.
Echoing Trump, Netanyahu routinely lashes out at the media, the judiciary, prosecutors and other alleged foes. But it has been his attacks on Israel\u2019s Arab minority that have caused the most controversy. Netanyahu has long targeted Israeli Arabs to rally his working-class, nationalist base \u2014 implying that they are a fifth column threatening the county.
In the current campaign, he has taken these tactics to a new level. He sparked uproar by leading a failed effort to allow activists to film voters at polling stations, claiming without evidence that they were needed to prevent fraud in Arab districts.
That was followed by a message on his Facebook page calling on voters to prevent the establishment of a government that includes \u201cArabs who want to destroy us all.\u201d
Facebook determined the post violated its hate speech policy and sanctioned the page for 24 hours. Netanyahu said the post was a staffer\u2019s mistake and had been removed.
Ayman Odeh, leader of the main Arab faction in parliament, accused Netanyahu of fearmongering. During a parliamentary session on the voting booth cameras, Odeh mocked Netanyahu by approaching the prime minister and pointing his cellphone camera at him, sparking a brief scuffle with other lawmakers.
\u201cHe always looks for an enemy. Always,\u201d said Odeh. \u201cThis man offers no hope. He only uses fear.\u201d
Days before the election, the race appears too close to call. Polls published over the weekend showed Netanyahu\u2019s Likud and Gantz\u2019s Blue and White neck and neck. Both parties fall far short of a majority in the 120-seat parliament, with their \u201cblocs\u201d of smaller allied parties also evenly divided.
The stakes are especially high for Netanyahu. Israel\u2019s attorney general has recommended that Netanyahu be indicted in three corruption cases, pending a hearing scheduled in October.
Although Netanyahu denies all charges, it is widely believed that he hopes to be able to form a narrow coalition of hard-line and religious parties willing to grant him immunity from prosecution.
If he falls short, he could find himself in the opposition or forced into a partnership with centrist rivals who have no interest in protecting him from prosecutors.
\u201cHe has no limits, because his only goal today is to avoid going to trial,\u201d said Stav Shaffir, a candidate with the leftist Democratic Union party. \u201cHe\u2019s afraid. But the thing is his fear is now used to threaten Israeli democracy. He\u2019s tearing apart Israeli society,\u201d she said.
This week\u2019s election was triggered by Avigdor Lieberman, a longtime ally turned rival who refused to join Netanyahu\u2019s coalition last April, robbing him of a majority, because of what he said was excessive influence by Jewish ultra-Orthodox religious parties.
Lieberman is once again playing hard to get. His Yisrael Beitenu party has emerged as a likely kingmaker, and he is demanding the formation of a secular unity government.
Lieberman also has repeatedly seized on the prime minister\u2019s failure to stop rocket fire launched by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
Despite Netanyahu\u2019s attempts to divert attention from the issue, he was embarrassed last week when air raid sirens disrupted a campaign rally in southern Israel and he was whisked away to safety. The clip spread quickly on social media and was repeatedly played on Israeli TV stations.
Even Netanyahu\u2019s much-hyped friendship with Trump has not delivered major results. During the first campaign early this year, Trump gave Netanyahu a boost by inviting him to the White House, where he recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 war.
This time around, Trump has instead alarmed the Israelis by declaring his readiness to meet with the president of Iran, Israel\u2019s archenemy, and then firing National Security Adviser John Bolton, an Iran hawk who was a strong Israel supporter in the White House.
\u201cIt seems that the gift that never stops giving, Donald Trump, has stopped cooperating with Netanyahu at the most critical junction in time,\u201d columnist Ben Caspit wrote in the Maariv daily.
\u201cBut no one should eulogize Netanyahu just yet,\u201d he added. \u201cHe still has a few days left. More dramatic announcements still lie ahead.\u201d
Late on Saturday, Trump delivered a small election gift, announcing on Twitter that he was exploring a possible defense pact with Israel.
While less dramatic than the Golan announcement last spring, Netanyahu happily accepted the gesture, thanking his \u201cdear friend\u201d and trumping it as \u201chistoric.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Embattled Israeli PM fights for survival in do-over election Updated 17 min 15 sec ago September 15, 2019 06:15 JERUSALEM: A visibly frantic Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the fight of his political life as the country heads to national elections for the second time this year.With Netanyahu locked in a razor tight race…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":40858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}