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Israel's high turnout sharpens Netanyahu's late appeal to voters

The election-day report also examines where an Eisenkot government might change domestic policy while maintaining continuity abroad.

Channel: RTÉ News ·

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Israel takes to the polls in a closely fought general election | RTÉ News

Things we can learn from the video

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0:35Voters in liberal Tel Aviv neighborhoods call for a change of government.
1:09At Tikva Market, a Likud stronghold, Netanyahu supporters and opponents argue in the street.
2:48Heaphy reports Likud's request for longer voting hours and Netanyahu's warnings about Arab turnout.
4:44Cornwell puts turnout at 66.7% as of 6 p.m.
5:53Mobilization could still leave a hung parliament; a minority government is among the possible outcomes.
7:27Cornwell anticipates an ultra-Orthodox conscription push under Eisenkot, but greater continuity in regional foreign policy.

Heavy turnout becomes a campaign issue in its own right as Israelis vote in a closely contested general election. Likud seeks longer voting hours, Benjamin Netanyahu urges supporters to mobilize, and correspondents consider whether an energized electorate will produce a workable government.

Ireland's public broadcaster, Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ News), follows the October 27 vote from Tel Aviv streets to live analysis from Jerusalem. Deputy Foreign Editor Edmund Heaphy reports calls for change in liberal neighborhoods before visiting Tikva Market, a Likud stronghold where supporters and opponents of Netanyahu argue in the street.

"Time for a relaxation. We have to change the government. It's very urgent," one voter tells him. The report then shows Netanyahu and his main opposition challenger, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, casting their ballots, alongside contrasting campaign advertisements.

In his live update, Heaphy describes Netanyahu as rattled by the turnout and recounts his warnings about Arab voter participation. He reports that the prime minister has presented the election as a life-or-death situation. Reuters senior correspondent Alexander Cornwell explains the messaging as an effort to bring Likud supporters to the polls.

Cornwell says turnout had reached 66.7% by 6 p.m., while the broadcast describes participation as the highest in a generation. But participation alone cannot settle the coalition question: he outlines several possible outcomes, including a hung parliament and a minority government.

The report places the vote against the aftermath of the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. It is Israelis' first general election since those attacks.

Asked what an Eisenkot-led government could change, Cornwell points to a push to conscript the ultra-Orthodox community into military service. On regional foreign policy, however, he anticipates more continuity. His analysis distinguishes a possible change of prime minister from a wholesale change in Israel's direction.

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