Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square under the banner “Israel wants change” as opponents of the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, tried to sway the vote ten days before the elections.
Organisers said that at least 30,000 people attended the rally. It was the largest political demonstration since a wave of protests swept the country in the summer of 2011.
The keynote speaker was Meir Dagan, a retired head of Mossad, the spy agency, and a fierce Netanyahu critic. “Israel is surrounded by enemies. Our enemies do not scare me; I’m worried about our leadership,” he said. “The crisis we are experiencing today is the worst I can remember since the founding of the state.”
Many Israelis say they are still undecided about the March 17 ballot, with as many as a quarter of the electorate yet to commit to any party.
Candidates from Israel’s 11 parties fighting for seats in the Knesset have largely avoided any substantive debate. The vote has become, if anything, a referendum on Mr Netanyahu himself, already Israel’s second longest-serving prime minister and now seeking a fourth term. He has campaigned largely on his security credentials, particularly his stand against Iran’s nuclear programme. He received a small boost in the polls from last week’s controversial speech on Iran to the US Congress.
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However, many of those attending Saturday’s rally criticised the prime minister for his inaction on the Palestinian issue, which Mr Dagan described as Israel’s greatest long-term threat.
“The whole election campaign is being conducted without mentioning the blood that was spilled here last summer,” said Michal Kesten-Kaidar, whose husband was killed fighting in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
“We are tired of operation after operation after operation,” said Ami Peretz, a supporter of the left-wing Meretz party, referring to the three wars against Hamas since 2008.
The polls show Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party in a dead heat with the centre-left Zionist Camp, both heading for about 24 seats in the 120-member Knesset. Mr Netanyahu is still the most likely candidate for prime minister, perhaps presiding over a unity government with the Zionist camp.
His opponents have opted to focus on economic issues such as the high price of housing, where Mr Netanyahu is weakest; Likud has not even bothered to release an economic programme. On the fashionable Rothschild Boulevard, dozens of Israelis are starting to rebuild the tent city that became the nucleus of the 2011 protests.
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Security issues intervened again, however, when the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonotpublished details of a “framework agreement” reached during secret back-channel negotiations with the Palestinians in 2013.
Yitzhak Molcho, a Netanyahu confidant who represented Israel at the talks, agreed to use the country’s pre-1967 borders as a basis for negotiations, and offered generous land swaps to compensate the Palestinians for settlements annexed into Israel. The agreement was non-binding, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, broke off the talks . Still, the concessions were striking: Mr Netanyahu had promised repeatedly never to withdraw to the “indefensible” 1967 lines.
“The next disaster is knocking at our door,” said Naftali Bennett, head of the right-wing Jewish Home party, who urged Likud supporters to back him instead. “No one else will fight against the disastrous partition of the country.”