Politicians vote early, plug selves often

Politicians flocked to polling stations across the country as ballots opened Tuesday morning, making 11th-hour pitches for Israelis to lend them support as three months of campaigning drew to a close.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to make Naftali Bennett a senior coalition partner and maintained he would not form a national unity government with the Zionist Union after casting his ballot just after 7 a.m.

Leaving the voting booth in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said that after results come in, his second phone call will be to Bennett, to begin forming a coalition. But first he will phone Miriam Peretz, a bereaved mother whose two sons were killed in action, he said. Netanyahu had offered her a spot on his slate, but she turned him down.

The prime minister reiterated his pledge not to join forces with the Zionist Union, regardless of the results.

Bennett and Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid on Monday evening expressed concern that Likud and the Zionist Union would join forces, and pointed to the cancellation of the rotation of the premiership with Tzipi Livni as an indication that a national unity government was in the works. Herzog dismissed the allegation as “claptrap.”

“There will be no unity with the left headed by Labor,” Netanyahu stressed Tuesday, in reference to the Zionist Union.

Rivlin urged voters to “take your destiny into your own hands” and head to the polling stations. The president said that although this was his 18th time voting, he was still “deeply moved.”

“Take your destiny in your own hands, and that of the state – it is not only a great privilege but a great obligation,” he said.

Yisrael Beytenu’s Avigdor Liberman told the public to vote for a Zionist party, in order to preserve the country’s Jewish character.

“I call on all Israeli citizens to go out and vote for any sort of Zionist party: it doesn’t matter if it’s Meretz, Yisrael Beytenu, or the Jewish Home, the important thing is to vote for a Zionist party because it’s important to keep the Jewish and Zionist character of the Jewish state,” the right-wing politician said, according to Ynet.

In Tel Aviv, Herzog proclaimed that the “elections are about change and hope or despair and disappointment.”

Kulanu’s Moshe Kahlon, formerly a Likud minister, said that it was the first time in his life that he was not voting Likud, “and I do so wholeheartedly.”

“We are at the peak of a long and exhausting campaign, but my feeling is great and I hope tonight we will show good results,” he said. “The more Knesset seats we have, the more tools we will have to carry out reforms for the benefit of Israel’s citizens,” Ynet quoted Kahlon as saying.

Meanwhile, Lapid said he would fight the establishment of a national unity government between Likud, the Zionist Union and the ultra-Orthodox parties.

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, voting in Jerusalem, said he hoped that his party “will surprise the pollsters” and score higher than anticipated.

Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. on Tuesday as Israeli citizens head for the ballots to vote for Israels 20th Knesset, bringing a heated campaign season, seen by many as a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership, to a close.

Exit polls come out once the polling stations close at 10 p.m., with official results coming in through the night.