Blue and White party

Benny Gantz, left, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right. (Gili Yaari, Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Election Day 2019, Part 2

Netanyahu, Gantz, or 28 other parties? Israel goes to the polls, again

Polling stations open at 7 a.m. across country for 6.3 million eligible voters, as bitter, hard-fought repeat campaign season reaches its climax

Blue and White Party chairman MK Benny Gantz speaks at an event in Kfar Ahim, a day before the elections, on September 16, 2019. (Flash90)

Election czar orders Blue and White’s final event shut down as Gantz speaks

By Stuart Winer and TOI staff

Former TV broadcaster and Blue and White Party environmental campaigner and animal rights activist Miki Haimovich pictured at a dog shelter appealing to viewers to give Shimi and other abandoned dogs a home. (YouTube screenshot)

InterviewBlue and White MK, an ex-TV anchor, wants to turn Israel green

By Sue Surkes

AnalysisWhy the man who comes second in Israel’s election could end up as prime minister

By Haviv Rettig Gur

September 17, 2019, 6:44 am

Netanyahu, Gantz, or 28 other parties? Israel goes to the polls, again

Polling stations open at 7 a.m. across country for 6.3 million eligible voters, as bitter, hard-fought repeat campaign season reaches its climax

By Raoul Wootliff

Blue and White head Benny Gantz visits the Western Wall in Jerusalem the night before elections, September 16, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

September 17, 2019, 4:40 am

Netanyahu and Gantz pray at Western Wall as bitter campaign comes to a close

Both candidates strike a solemn note the night before elections with prayers in Jerusalem for peace and success for Israel

By TOI staff

September 16, 2019, 11:47 pm

Election czar orders Blue and White’s final event shut down as Gantz speaks

Hanan Melcer deems gathering a violation of campaign laws in final hours before vote; also bans businesses from giving election day discounts to voters

By Stuart Winer and TOI staff

September 16, 2019, 10:52 pm

Blue and White MK, an ex-TV anchor, wants to turn Israel green

Determined not to stand idly by in the face of environmental degradation, animal rights campaigner Miki Haimovich eyes Environmental Protection Ministry

By Sue Surkes

From right to left: Blue and White party leaders Benny Gantz, Moshe Ya'alon, and Gabi Ashkenazi visit Ashkelon on September 11, 2019. (Flash90)

September 16, 2019, 9:35 pm

Gantz names his picks for defense, education ministers if he wins elections

Blue and White leader says he’ll tap fellow former IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi for defense, ex-defense minister Moshe Ya’alon for education, if he forms next government

By TOI staff

The remaining ballots from soldiers and absentees being counted at the Knesset on April 10, 2019, a day after the general elections, (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

September 16, 2019, 6:39 am

Round two: ToI’s guide to the 30 parties that want your vote, again

Everything you need to know about the front-runners, the new alliances, the parties in danger of stumbling under the electoral threshold, and the earnest yet hopeless unknowns

By Raoul Wootliff, Marissa Newman, Jacob Magid and Adam Rasgon

Former US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk speaks at the State Department as Secretary of State John Kerry announces that Indyk will shepherd the Israeli Palestinian peace talks beginning in Washington, July 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

September 14, 2019, 5:51 pm

Obama envoy says Netanyahu ‘encouraged’ plan that included settler withdrawal

Martin Indyk, former US ambassador to Israel, disputes PM’s claim he shot down rival Gantz’s efforts on proposal to evacuate Jordan Valley

By TOI staff

An Arabic-language campaign poster of Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz and MK Gadeer Mreeh is seen outside a campaign event in Shfaram on August 26, 2019. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

September 14, 2019, 12:31 pm

Arab Israelis, Jews consider voting across ethnic lines

Some Arab voters say they’ll back Blue and White to defeat Netanyahu, while Jewish supporters of Arab parties see their votes as necessary to stop ‘the antidemocratic current’

By Majeda El Batsh and Clothilde Mraffko

Supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu march at the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem on September 13, 2019. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

September 13, 2019, 10:17 pm

Final polls have Netanyahu edging toward majority right-wing bloc

Momentum is with the right even though PM’s Likud and its rival Blue and White are tied in pair of TV surveys, which also have extremist Otzma Yehudit entering the Knesset

By TOI staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points at a map of the Jordan Valley as he gives a statement, promising to extend Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea area, in Ramat Gan on September 10, 2019. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

September 13, 2019, 12:41 am

Netanyahu, Likud fined for electioneering during Jordan Valley declaration

Election Committee chief slaps NIS 30,000 penalty on prime minister and his party for backtracking on promise not to include campaign propaganda during live TV statement

By Stuart Winer and TOI staff

Blue and White leader MK Benny Gantz speaks at a Channel 12 News conference in Tel Aviv on September 5, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

September 12, 2019, 10:25 pm

Blue and White’s lead grows slightly in poll

Kan public broadcaster finds 2-seat lead for centrist party over ruling Likud; like recent surveys, gives extremist Otzma Yehudit 4 seats

By TOI staff

This combination of pictures created on April 2, 2019 shows (L) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz. (Ronen Zvulun and Jack Guez/AFP)

September 12, 2019, 6:54 pm

Why the man who comes second in Israel’s election could end up as prime minister

Neither Netanyahu nor Gantz is set to get the support of 61 MKs, so they’re battling to head the biggest party and thus win Rivlin’s okay to build a coalition. This may not be wise

By Haviv Rettig Gur

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, being moved away from a campaign event stage while surrounded by security as rockets are shot at Ashdod on September 10, 2019. (screen capture: Twitter)

September 12, 2019, 1:16 am

Hamas lauds rocket attack as spooking Netanyahu, shaking Israel’s image

Gaza’s ruling terror group boasts that pair of missiles which forced PM to take cover during campaign speech ‘made it all the way to the heart of the Israeli occupation’

By TOI staff

In this photo from, June 23, 2019 file photo, US National Security Advisor John Bolton, right, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visit an old army outpost overlooking the Jordan Valley between the Israeli city of Beit Shean and the Palestinian city of Jericho. Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to annex the Jordan Valley if he wins national elections next week. (AP Photo/Abir Sultan, File)

September 11, 2019, 12:54 am

Netanyahu’s Jordan Valley sovereignty vow widely panned by politicians as ‘spin’

Blue and White’s Ya’alon claims PM was ready to demolish Jordan Valley settlements in 2014; left-wing figures say promise meant to help premier escape his legal woes

By TOI staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks before a map of the Jordan Valley, vowing to extend Israeli sovereignty there if re-elected, during a speech in Ramat Gan on September 10, 2019. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

September 10, 2019, 9:33 pm

Annexing voters: How Netanyahu’s Jordan Valley pledge could hurt election rivals

PM’s promise to apply Israeli law to parts of the West Bank appears to be aimed at siphoning Yamina supporters to Likud and pushing Blue and White backers to Democratic Camp

By Raoul Wootliff