Israel deserves better than Netanyahu’s bid to retake power and stay out of jail | Lloyd Green

With days to go, the calm belies what is at stake: the hard right empowered so a beleaguered figure can win and possibly evade justice

As Israel heads to the polls on Tuesday for its fifth election since the spring of 2019, its politics are fractious, but stop short of visceral acridity. The country's rival tribes are content to jostle each other. It's an eerie quiet before what could be a terrible storm. With just days to go, Benjamin Netanyahu and the right lead in hypothetical match-ups, but may fall short of the 61 seats needed in the 120-member Knesset, Israel's parliament, to dislodge Yair Lapid, the current prime minister.

As for Lapid, his chances of securing an outright victory are slim. Talk on the street is of a Seinfeld election - much ado about almost nothing. The country is tired. Yet there is greater internal consensus than one would glean from the rhetoric bandied on the campaign trail.

Lloyd Green served in the served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992 and is a regular freelance contributor to Guardian US

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