Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in for a nail-biter Tuesday as voters head to the polls to decide the political fate of the country, with U.S. newsrooms on alert due to the possibility of the incumbent leader being toppled in an upset election.
“Israelis vote as ‘King Bibi’s’ reign hangs in the balance,” Reuters said in a headline Tuesday, noting in the body of the report that the contest between Netanyahu, 65, and his center-left opponent, Isaac Herzog, will likely come down to the wire.
The possibility of a Netanyahu loss would not only come as a surprise to his supporters, but it may also serve as a “referendum” on the prime minister’s legacy and his efforts to combat militant Islam and Iran’s attempts to go nuclear, Reuters suggested.
The last survey conducted before the election, which was published on March 13, showed Herzog’s Zionist Union leading Netanyahu’s Likud, suggesting that there may indeed be an upset election in Israel this week.
However, should Netanyahu, who has held office for nine years over the course of three terms, pull through Tuesday’s election, he will be in the running for Israeli’s longest-serving prime minister.
But it is unclear whether Netanyahu will stand victorious in Tuesday’s elections, landing a fourth term as prime minster, and U.S. newsrooms are eagerly anticipating the final results of Israel’s election.
“Netanyahu appeals to backers to avert defeat Tuesday,” USA Today said in a headline Tuesday.
“Benjamin Netanyahu made a last-ditch appeal to supporters of his right-wing Likud Party to turn out for Israel’s election Tuesday and avert defeat for the long-serving prime minister,” the paper reported.
Elsewhere, the Washington Post said Tuesday that Netanyahu is fighting “for political life as surging critics pose election ‘danger.'”
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fought for his political life Tuesday, saying his hard-line government was ‘in danger’ after a bruising election campaign in which voters shifted from security worries toward pocketbook concerns such as rising living costs,” the Post reported.
Meanwhile, ABC News characterized the election as one where Netanyahu is struggling “to hold on as Israeli PM.”
The Wall Street Journal, for its part, reported voters flocked to the polls as “Netanyahu Fights to Stay in Power,” adding that the incumbent prime minister hopes that the election “would be decided by fears of the country’s enemies instead of the cost of living at home.”
For Fox News, today’s elections opened with “Netanyahu’s power hanging in the balance.”
Elsewhere, major U.S. newspapers, including the Journal, the New York Times and the Post, prominently featured news of the election on their front pages, the majority of them giving ink to Netanyahu’s vow that there will be no Palestinian state so long as he is in power, an apparent reversal on the eve of the election.
For now, the election is too close to call. But newsrooms in the U.S. appeared to be well prepared for the era of Netanyahu, whose tense relationship with President Obama has dominated headlines recently, to come to a sudden end.
