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Four days before elections, most surveys have Netanyahu’s party 3-4 seats behind Herzog’s On the last weekend before Tuesday’s general election, Israeli media published the final polls for the current election cycle before a four-day moratorium on surveys. The Zionist Union kept its lead over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party in those polls, with most giving Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni’s joint list a 3-4 seat edge over its competitor. A Maariv poll had Zionist Union with 25 and Likud with 21. Yesh Atid was tied with the Joint (Arab) List for 13, with Jewish Home trailing at 11....

Its campaign has grown frantic, its activists are moribund. And though it would be wrong to bury the ruling Likud party, its supporters are right to be worried. The Likud party is losing the election. That’s not the assessment of pollsters or analysts but of Likud itself, which has spent much of the last few days in an increasingly frantic scramble to warn right-wing voters that voting for any other right-wing party could lead to a left-wing government. “We might wake up in a week and find that Tzipi [Livni] and [Isaac] Boujie [Herzog] are prime ministers of Israel,” Netanyahu...

Polls published in Israeli media on Friday showed the center-left Zionist Union gaining some ground against its right-wing Likud rivals ahead of March 17’s general elections. Zionist Union had a slight edge over Likud in two polls: 25-23 mandates in a Maariv poll and 23-22 in an Israel Radio poll. A survey on the Walla news site had the two parties tied at 23, while the website’s poll last week had Likud leading by one seat. Meanwhile, the Jewish Home party saw a slight dip in the surveys. While four different polls last week placed Naftali Bennett’s national religious party...

Senior members of the Likud party – including, some say, even the most senior of them – are keeping their fingers crossed for President Barack Obama. They hope that he won’t fall ill, that he won’t fly off to some distant continent, that a cat won’t get his tongue, and that he won’t become suddenly faint-hearted about the escalating confrontation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As in the well-known joke about the sadist and the masochist, the Likudniks are eager to continue being pummeled by Obama directly or by his secretary of state or by his national security adviser. They’ve...

What is Zionism? The ideological question, rooted in the 19th century, has gained surprising urgency in an Israeli election campaign that seems more open than had been expected. Seeking to take votes from the nationalistic right of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the relatively liberal opposition has rebranded itself as the Zionist Union—sparking a debate about a concept that some considered resolved when the Jewish state was declared and widely recognized in 1948. […] On the left, politicians speak of true Zionism as requiring the establishment of peace and equality in the land, including by making peace with the Palestinians and...

Check out five opinions trending online, from Google’s black box to Hillary’s men. Voting with their euros: In a proxy no-confidence vote, Greeks are sending their money abroad as creditors try to reach an agreement with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board writes. “Fleeing deposits represent a resounding vote of no confidence in the new government, and no wonder. Mr. Tsipras’s hard-left Syriza party keeps digging in against reforms that would be necessary for Greece to stay in the euro.” Read more. Israel’s Sarah Palin: Writing for the Daily Beast, Ricky Ben-David and Nira Yadin analyze...

With four weeks until elections for the 20th Knesset, Likud and Labor-Hatnua appear to be neck and neck. According to a survey conducted by the Midgam Institute for Channel Two, Labor, running under the moniker the "Zionist Camp" just barely inches by Likud with 25 seats. Likud is one behind with 24 mandates. It has been noted that even if Likud comes in behind, the party with the greatest chance of forming a coalition is given first crack, meaning the outcome of the close competition remains up in the air. The joint Arab list comes in as the third largest...

Anti-Israel rap group Torabyeh claims their song "Ghorbah" was used without permission and distorts their reputation. Jordanian rap group is incensed over the use of their song in Likud's latest campaign video, which was released Saturday night. The strongly anti-Israel rap group Torabyeh claimed that their song "Ghorbah" was used without permission and distorts their reputation. "We strongly condemn and reject this ruthless infringement of intellectual property rights and the distortion of the reputation of Torabyeh," the group wrote in a statement on Torabyeh's Facebook page, saying they plan to take legal action against the ad's creators.

With more than a month before the Israeli elections scheduled for March 17, 2015, what emerges from recent polls is that a right-of-center coalition is more of an apparent outcome. It would leave Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister. The Knesset (Parliament) TV Channel poll, published on February 10, 2015 shows small variation from the previous week’s poll by the same channel.

Amman-based hip-hop band Torabyeh say ruling party put their lives at risk by linking them to Islamic State Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpVwW_bfEQM Members of the Amman-based alternative hip-hop group Torabyeh accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday of putting their lives at serious risk by linking them with terrorism and associating them with Islamic State fighters, following the apparently illegal use of a rap song performed by the band in a controversial campaign ad posted online by the Likud party Saturday night. “In the last propaganda video released by the Israeli Likud Party which is headed by the criminal Benjamin Netanyahu (Zionist...

Despite–or perhaps because of–the outrage of the Obama administration and left-wing Democrats in Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party continue to surge in Israeli polls, reaching their widest lead of the election thus far, according to a Jerusalem Post/Maariv Sof Hashavua poll. The poll, which shows Likud leading its closest rival by four seats in the 120-seat Knesset, is the widest lead that the Likud has enjoyed leading up to the Mar. 17 election. In addition, the Post notes, “For the first time since Netanyahu initiated the election on December 2, the proportion of respondents saying...

A leading American political strategist with deep ties to the Republican party was hired by the ruling Likud party and will serve as its media consultant ahead of the upcoming March 17 elections, Army Radio reported. Vincent Harris, the CEO of the Austin-based firm Harris Media, currently serves as Chief Digital Strategist to Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, and was highly active in the 2012 US presidential elections, where he handled online campaigning for candidates Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich. Harris also worked in digital campaigning alongside Senator Ted Cruz in 2012 and Senator Mitch McConnell in 2014, significantly advancing social...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is getting excellent reviews from commenters following the release of his latest campaign video. The video features a young couple that is about to leave for a night out when the baby-sitter knocks at the door. “You asked for a babysitter? You got a Bibi-sitter,” says Netanyahu. "Look, it's either me or Tzipi [Livni] and Buji [Herzog],” he explains to the bewildered couple. The couple immediately protests that their children would need to babysit Herzog, and not the other way around. In addition, “by the time we return we'd have no house... he'd even hand over...

EILAT, Israel – The V15 group working to defeat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in the upcoming election has confirmed to WND it is primarily financed by an American billionaire and a Mexican entrepreneur who is a U.S. resident. V15, short for Victory 2015, attracted U.S. media attention after it hired 270 Strategies, a consulting firm whose senior leadership is comprised mostly of former top staffers for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Uri Wollman, V15′s spokesman, told WND his organization’s ballooning infrastructure is funded primarily by three private philanthropists: •S. Daniel Abraham, the billionaire founder of the Slim Fast...

<p>EILAT, Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party hit back Sunday at a U.S.-linked organization staffed with former Obama campaigners now working to defeat Netanyahu in an upcoming general election.</p> <p>Victory 2015, or V15, attracted U.S. media attention after it hired 270 Strategies, a consulting firm whose senior leadership is comprised mostly of former top staffers for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.</p>

Zionist Union connected to V15, an organization working to bring down the government, which has received funding from non-Israeli citizens, Likud charges. Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog has violated laws prohibiting accepting funds from non-Israeli citizens and foreign funded organizations and governments, Likud MKs said Sunday at a Tel Aviv press conference. Deputy ministers Tzipi Hotovely and Ophir Akunis, MKs Miri Regev and Yariv Levin, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's lawyer presented evidence connecting the Zionist Union to V15, an organization working to bring down the government, which has received funding from non-Israeli citizens S. Daniel Abraham and Daniel Lubetzky....

The Likud party intends to hold a press conference in Tel Aviv Sunday in which it will expose details about “V15 – Victory in 2015,” a campaign it says is using foreign money, and lots of it, to boost Labor and Meretz in the elections. Likud has filed a motion to the Elections Committee, according to which V15 is carrying out an illegal indirect campaign with a connection to Labor and Meretz. V15 is “making criminal use of foreign sources of funding,” adding that the sums involved were “very high” and their sources unknown. Likud's press conference will include MK...

The Likud party intends to hold a press conference in Tel Aviv Sunday in which it will expose details about “V15 – Victory in 2015,” a campaign it says is using foreign money, and lots of it, to boost Labor and Meretz in the elections. Likud has filed a motion to the Elections Committee, according to which V15 is carrying out an illegal indirect campaign with a connection to Labor and Meretz. V15 is “making criminal use of foreign sources of funding,” adding that the sums involved were “very high” and their sources unknown. Likud's press conference will include MK...

Despite claims by Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson that Speaker Boehner’s invitation to PM Netanyahu has “backfire[d] on them both,” in the real world Netanyahu’s Likud Party has just moved ahead in the latest poll of the Israeliu electorate. The Jerusalem Post: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party reached the top spot in a Panels Research poll taken for The Jerusalem Post and its Hebrew sister newspaper, Ma’ariv Sof Hashavua, on Thursday for the first time since Labor and Hatnua joined forces on December 10 to create the Zionist Union. The Likud Party is firing back against the efforts of Obama-affiliated...

Likud petitioned the Central Elections Committee on Wednesday for an order barring campaigning by the V15 organization, after Haaretz earlier this week reported on the organization’s efforts to replace the Likud-led government. V15, which stands for Victory 2015, is partnering with the pro-peace organization OneVoice. Its goal is to recruit thousands of volunteers who will go door to door before the election to persuade as many as one million people to vote to change the government. To this end, it hired Jeremy Bird, the national field director of U.S. President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, to organize its efforts. The Likud...