61 cups and 'gevalt': Rival parties ratchet up pressure to vote for them Tuesday

With less than two days remaining before polls open, political parties are turning to the familiar “gevalt” campaign of making far-reaching claims and warnings over the potential outcome of voting for or against them in Tuesday’s election.

In a video, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu stacks 60 paper cups to represent his right-religious bloc, after the final television polls before the vote showed it one seat short of a majority, and then he adds a 61st cup.

“If [the one seat] doesn’t go to Likud, and if Yesh Atid is just one seat bigger than Likud, then [Prime Minister Yair] Lapid will form the government,” he says.

The former premier argues that it then won’t matter how many seats the allied far-right Religious Zionism party wins, declaring “all of us will be in the opposition” as he knocks the cups over.

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu knocks over paper cups to illustrate his reelection challenge ahead of the November 1, 2022 elections. “We’ll be in the opposition” if he and his loyalists fail to win at least 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset, reads the text. (Facebook screenshot)

Meretz, meanwhile, releases a video that repeatedly shows a clip of Netanyahu saying “we will win the elections” if the left-wing party “falls.”

The video then warns that in such a scenario, Netanyahu and Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir — who is No. 2 on the Religious Zionism slate — will win 61 Knesset seats, a majority in the Knesset.

National Unity leader Benny Gantz also appeals to concerns over a potential Netanyahu government with Ben Gvir, releasing a graphic contrasting himself with the two of them and Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich.

The poster shows the three of them looming ominously in the background as Ben Gvir clutches a smoking gun, while touting Gantz as best “against the threat.”