Netanyahu Warns Against Voting for Small Right-Wing Parties, Citing Past Left-Wing Governments' Deadly Consequences

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a new campaign video on Monday warning voters against supporting small right-wing parties that might fail to pass the electoral threshold. He specifically mentioned parties led by Ofer Winter, Gilad Erdan, and Yuli Edelstein, which he said attract disappointed members of the current coalition. Netanyahu argued that in the past, votes for such small factions caused the collapse of right-wing governments, leading to left-wing administrations that, according to him, resulted in thousands of Israeli deaths.

Netanyahu recounted the 1992 elections when right-wing voters split their votes among multiple parties, enabling the Labor Party to come to power. He blamed that government for enabling Yasser Arafat and his associates to establish Palestinian entities in Gaza and the West Bank, with consequences he described as well-known. He linked this historical event to the recent October 7 massacre, where 1,195 Israelis were killed initially, with the death toll later surpassing 2,000.

The prime minister accused small right-wing parties of repeating the same mistake by fragmenting the vote, which he said risks bringing left-wing parties back to power. He warned that such a scenario would lead to a "fascist regime" suppressing free speech, closing media outlets like Channel 14, and undermining democracy. Netanyahu urged voters to avoid wasting their votes on small parties, symbolically throwing a paper representing wasted votes into a trash bin in the video. He concluded by emphasizing that preventing a left-wing government is in the hands of the voters and that unity on the right is essential to avoid a political and democratic disaster for Israel.