Netanyahu Pressures Small Parties to Get Out of Election Contests

JERUSALEM — With Israel’s elections just four days away, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is urging small right-wing parties to withdraw from next week’s tight election for fear that they might siphon off votes.

Opinion polls ahead of the October 27 election show Netanyahu’s right-wing alliance neck and neck with his primary center-right rival, Gadi Eisenkot.

After Winter, founder of the new far-right Amcha Israel party, polling near the 3.25 percent election threshold to enter parliament, has been Netanyahu’s main aim. If they don’t clear the hurdle, tens of thousands of right-wing votes would be lost.

Winter vowed Wednesday to stay in the race despite increasing pressure from Netanyahu and his Likud party to step aside.

Winter told i24NEWS he was confident his party would clear the election barrier, disregarding polls to the contrary. We are running all the way, and we will cross the electoral threshold,” Winter vowed. “I am very confident because we have our own data, not from polls or surveys. We have more than 180,000 people who will back us to the end, despite the intense campaigns and all kinds of pressure against us. “We got into politics to make a difference, and we are going to make it work.”

Winter said he was shocked by Netanyahu’s approach to addressing the campaign urging him to withdraw.

Netanyahu shared this photograph on X on Thursday of Winter smiling while burning votes. The message said that if people vote for parties below the election threshold, an opposition coalition would win power.

Netanyahu and a major member of his coalition, hawkish Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have for days accused Winter of jeopardizing their bloc’s chances and have sought to persuade him to give up his nomination.

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