Israeli elections: who are the candidates?

According to Haaretz Daily’s last poll published last week, the opposition Zionist Union, composed of the left Labor party and the Hatnuah (Movement) party, continues to maintain its narrow lead over the Likud.

The union is projected to win 24 seats in the 120-seat parliament, while the Likud has lost two seats since the last survey and is predicted to win only 21 seats.

Binyamin Netanyahu

Mr Netanyahu has spent a total of nine years as prime minister since 1996, and if he can keep the post through mid-2019, he will become the country’s longest-serving premier. But after enjoying a surge of popularity following last summer’s war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, Mr Netanyahu is struggling.

As Israel prepares to heads to the polls in four days, Mr Netanyahu finds himself at a fateful crossroads: make history or become history.

If Mr Netanyahu can lead his Likud Party to victory and secure a fourth term as prime minister, he will be well on his way to overtaking the nation’s iconic founding father, David Ben-Gurion, as the longest-ever serving premier and cementing his status as the dominant Israeli politician of the past two decades.

But if Likud stumbles and finds itself in the opposition – a real possibility according to recent polls – the Netanyahu era could end with a whimper, concluding a career that many would say brought few major accomplishments beyond longevity.

Iran and the international community seem headed toward a nuclear deal that Mr Netanyahu abhors, and a resolution to the Palestinian issue seems as distant as ever.

Yitzhak Herzog and Tzipi Livni

A lawyer who has headed the Labour party since 2013, Herzog, 54, was first elected to parliament in 2003 and has held a series of cabinet posts in various coalitions.

In the election campaign, he has partnered with centrist Tzipi Livni, with both agreeing to a two-year rotation as prime minister should the party form the next government.

Mr Herzog has called for efforts to revive the peace process with the Palestinians but, echoing Mr Netanyahu, he has said major Jewish settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank should remain in Israeli hands in any future peace deal.

If Mr Herzog and Ms Livni beat Mr Netanyahu by only two or three seats, it may still be possible for Mr Netanyahu to cobble together a coalition, especially as there are more like-minded parties on the right and far-right with which he can form an alliance.

But if the Zionist Union wins by four or more seats, the chances of it being asked by Israel’s president to form a coalition first would rise substantially.

It would then have to try to bring a disparate array of parties, including the centrist Yesh Atid, perhaps some ultra-Orthodox religious groups, a united Arab list and maybe a breakaway faction of Likud into its camp.

That is a tall order, but not impossible. The best indication that it is a growing possibility comes from Netanyahu, who has said there is a “real danger” he will lose and has urged his traditional base to turn out to vote.

Naftali Bennett

Naftali Bennett, leader of the far-right Jewish Home party, emerged as a surprise success story in the 2013 election, advocating annexation of more than half of the occupied West Bank and calling a Palestinian state “suicide” for Israel.

Mr Bennett, a religious Jew, has expanded his party’s appeal to younger, more secular Israelis through a series of hip campaign commercials in which the 42-year-old mocks liberals, whom he accuses of apologising to the world for Israel’s existence.

Now economy minister, he is widely seen as being in the running for a top cabinet post if Mr Netanyahu forms the next governing coalition.

Born in Israel to parents from San Francisco, Mr Bennett spent years in the United States before he sold his anti-fraud software company to a US security firm for $145m.

Yair Lapid and Ayman Odeh

Yair Lapid is the chairman of the Yesh Atid party. In March 2013, following his coalition agreement with Likud, Mr Lapid was appointed as the Israeli minister of finance. In May 2013, Lapid ranked first on the list of the “Most Influential Jews in the World” by the Jerusalem Post.

Ayman Odeh is an Arab Israeli lawyer and politician. He currently serves as leader of Hadash, and head of the Joint List, a political alliance of four Arab-dominated parties; Hadash, Balad, the United Arab List and Ta’al.