Elections Committee head was told vote could be called off due to war – report

Haaretz reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, met last week with the head of the Central Election Committee to inform him that Tuesday’s elections could be called off due to war.

Earlier today, the newspaper reported that the prime minister tried to initiate an aggressive response to a rocket attack from Gaza that had forced him to take shelter during a campaign stop in Ashdod last week.

The earlier report said that the initiative was effectively blocked by the attorney general, who said the cabinet would have to be convened to make such a decision.

The newer report says that the debate on a possible military response in Gaza became so serious that Ben-Shabbat invited the head of the Central Elections Committee, Hanan Melcer, to attend the meeting. He reportedly did so at the behest of the attorney-general, Avichai Mandelblit.

On Friday morning Netanyahu said, “An operation in Gaza could happen at any moment, including four days before the elections. The date of the elections does not factor [into a decision to go to war].”

Israelis go to the polls on Tuesday. Netanyahu, who is facing stiff competition in his bid to reclaim the premiership, has been seeking to hammer home his credentials and past achievements in security and diplomacy, but ongoing attacks from Gaza have remained a nagging thorn in his side, repeatedly exploited by his political rivals.

For many of those rivals, the scenes of Netanyahu being forced to take shelter from rockets provided a counterpoint to the image he has attempted to cultivate as Mr. Security, highlighting what they say is his government’s failure to deal with ongoing attacks from Gaza terror groups.