Bibi rules out compromise two-state solution as an attack on Israel

VOTES were being tallied early today in the knife-edge Israeli general election.

An Israeli woman casts her ballot with her child at a polling station in Jerusalem on March 17, 2015.

VOTES are being tallied in the knife-edge Israeli general election after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed yesterday there would be no independent state for Palestinians, sharpening the choice between his right-wing Likud Party and opposition centrists promising to revive the stalled peace process.

Mr Netanyahu’s aggressive final pitch aimed to appeal to ­voters leaning to far-right ­minority parties as well as underscore doubts about the capacity of his chief rival, Labor’s Isaac ­Herzog, to stand up for Israel ­during turbulent times in the ­region.

Mr Herzog’s running mate on the ticket known as Zionist Union, former minister of state and peace negotiator Tzipi Livni, backed away from a deal to rotate the role of prime minister if they managed to form government — an 11th-hour effort to defuse a potent Likud attack.

Israel’s 5.8 million voters were due out in massive numbers in an election polarised by fatigue with the hawkish Mr Netanyahu, 65, but uncertainty about the country’s direction without him.

Mr Herzog, 54, is a departure from the muscular style of leader who traditionally succeeds, and his national security credentials have been challenged by the Right as Israel confronts Islamic State on its doorstep, international pressure to make concessions on land to the Palestinians and the US edging towards a nuclear control agreement with the country’s arch-enemy, Iran.

Mr Netanyahu addressed the US congress on March 3 to ­denounce the looming nuclear deal, in what was supposed to be a high point of his bid for a fourth term. Instead, he brought down a storm of criticism for politicising Israel’s bedrock relationship with Washington, an accusation the Prime Minister rejected.

Israel’s high cost of living and escalating housing prices have also gained traction with voters, who will choose between a dizzying 1280 candidates grouped into tickets ranging from a newly ­unified Arab bloc, to ultra-­conservative religious parties, peaceniks and activists running on lone-issue platforms such as child protection.

Mr Netanyahu emphatically ruled out establishment of a Palestinian state, burying his at-best half-hearted support for an independent homeland in the West Bank territories and Gaza for ­Palestinians dispossessed by ­Israel’s 1948 war of independence and the 1967 battles with Arab ­armies. “I think that anyone that moves to establish a Palestinian state and evacuate territory gives territory away to radical Islamist attacks against Israel,’’ Mr Netanyahu told a website owned by US casino boss Sheldon Adelson, his biggest backer.

Asked if it was true no Palestinian state would be set up if he was returned as Prime Minister, Mr Netanyahu responded: “Indeed’’.

Under Mr Herzog, the son of a former president, Zionist Union backs the two-state solution that has heavy international support, including from Australia.

But on Jerusalem, a hot-button issue between the sides, the Zionist Union policy says only that its status as capital would be strengthened, and not whether it might be shared or divided as it was pre-1967. Mr Netanyahu has said his government would never allow this, if returned.

Zionist Union led Likud by four seats — either by 26-22 or 24-20 — in the final round of opinion polls published last Friday, before a blackout came into effect.

But with 61 seats required for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, the real fight is over who gets the vote to secure a nod from President Reuven Rivlin to enter negotiations with the minority parties to stitch together a governing ­coalition.

In addition, Israeli opinion polls are notoriously unreliable because of the lag to polling day, when up to 20 per cent of voters make up their minds.

Likud will be hoping that predictions of a late drift back to Mr Netanyahu are right; the leader of the United List of Arab Israeli parties, Ayman Odeh, buoyed the Zionist Union by saying he was willing to consider supporting Mr Herzog in the post-election horse trading, though not to what ­degree.

The polling stations opened late afternoon yesterday, Australian time, and voting was to continue until the early hours of this morning.