…from Russia Today,  Moscow

[ Editor’s Note:  You will notice that Iraelis are still using paper ballots. Gosh, what have they figured out that Americans have not?  I am starting this out in War Zone and then probably moving it to Politics later in the day. But it will be easy to find.

We pray that Likud gets unseated to upset the lock the Likud has had on Palestinian negotiations, and its ability to create incident which require the bombing of Gaza every two years, and little nasties like supporting ISIL.

Will the now opposition do the same thing if they win? Possibly they will, but there is at least a chance they will represent a shift. They have already said that finalizing Israel’s borders would be one of their top priorities, something no past leadership has wanted to do so as to keep the door open for grabbing a few more acres if the opportunity arose.

But that is a double edged sword is they pursue it unilaterally and not as a final peace settlement on the West Bank and Gaza. The general thinking that is that they will be more pragmatic on the Iran nuke negotiations where sabotaging them would not be their top goal.

As for American relations, their focus seems to be keeping the money rolling as they have to shift funding to social issues to fullfill election promises, and sticking American taxpayers with as much of their defense bill as possible is critical to them long term.

But first we have to see if old fashioned ballot box stuffing is alive and well in Israel. One look and their inexpensive cardboard boxes was a bit scary at first glance, but in a small  country I would image that many eyes will be on the boxes and the ballots until the last one is counted. Please pray for “Bye, bye Bibi” today…and hopefully it will be wonderful day… Jim W. Dean ]

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Bye, bye Bibi? – We shall see

As Israelis are heading to the polls to cast their ballots for the 20th Knesset, PM Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking a fourth term in office. But the outcome is too close to call as the Likud party faces strong opposition from the Zionist Union.

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First Update – 1:43pm EST

[ Note:  The feathers are beginning to fly as cheaters are getting caught trying to bend-break the rules and the election commission is pounching on them with quick decisions.]

A statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, expected to be delivered on Tuesday evening, has been banned from live broadcasting in Israel, Haaretz reported.

Netanyahu’s press conference qualifies as election propaganda, according to the Central Elections Committee head, Justice Salim Joubran.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who is also head of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, has warned voters that if they chose any other party, it would lead to the growth of terrorist movements in the country.

“Whoever wants to prevent an ISIS branch and an Al-Qaeda cell in Israel must vote for Yisrael Beiteinu,”Haaretz quoted the politician as saying while touring the polling stations.

Social Media post:  Far-right leader Lieberman basically just cast #Israel‘s 20-percent Arab minority as a future branch of ISIS or al-Qaeda  9:43 AM – 17 Mar 2015 .

Last week, Lieberman was himself compared to Islamic State militants, after he suggested that Arab citizens who are disloyal to Israel deserve to be decapitated.

The ultra-orthodox Shas party has courted controversy after handing out flyers promising a “key to heaven” for the voters.

In its advertisements, distributed by the party on Tuesday, Shas founder and spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was pictured with a promise saying “those who vote for Shas will go straight to heaven,” with an image of a key above it.

Right-wing parties urgently filed petitions against the ultra-Orthodox movement.

Israel’s Central Election Committee has issued an injunction to stop the distribution, Haaretz reported, as the country’s election laws prohibit politicians from promising spiritual rewards to voters. Shas then slammed the ruling, the news source reported, quoting the party as stating to be “proud of our tradition, enough with the silencing and incitement!”

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First posting

By 4pm (2pm GMT), over 45 percent of Israelis had cast their votes, according to data based on 9,000 polling stations across Israel, Haaretz reported.

By 12pm (10am GMT), voter turnout stood at 26.5 percent, the Haaretz reports.

The IDF has used Twitter to call on Israeli soldiers to take part in the election.

By 10am (8am GMT), 13.7% of voters had cast their ballots, which is over 20 percent higher than the voter turnout at the same hour in the previous two elections, Haaretz reports.

Former President Shimon Peres, who lost an election to Netanyahu in 1996 and who said he supports the Zionist Union’s Isaac Herzog in the current election, has cast his vote.

“I call on all citizens of Israel – Jewish, Arab, Christian, Druze, Circassian, young and old – come to vote – today is a celebration of democracy,” Peres said as cited by Ynetnews.

Only 7.4 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots during the first two hours of the election, Israeli media report. That’s the lowest turnout number for this period since 1973, the Times of Israel specifies.

In 2013, marked by higher than average turnout, 11.4 percent had voted in the first two hours. In 2009 it was 10.3 percent.

RT’s Paula Slier, who’s following the election in Tel Aviv, says that the Israelis’ frustration with the current economic situation and the lack of progress in the Palestinian issue might get in the way of Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to hold on to the reins after the current election.

Domestic issues are outweighing foreign policy ones in the current election, according to Owen Alterman, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

“It’s economic issues, housing prices, the cost of living that are really the major political issues here and that are going to loom large,” Alterman told RT. “The Iranian issue is one Netanyahu is personally committed and passionate about it. Mr. Netanyahu and the political right here in general have an advantage when it comes to security issues, because the public tends to lean more towards their position than toward the political left. As with the economic issues, [the right] tend to have a disadvantage, so Mr. Netanyahu in terms of his election campaign and strategy has a distinct incentive to steer the debate towards security issues and away from the economic issues.”