Israel’s leading parties tied ahead of Tuesday vote - Semafor

Israel’s parliamentary polls looked neck-and-neck ahead of voting on Tuesday, with opposing camps painting apocalyptic images of what the future holds if they lost. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who won a renewed endorsement from US President Donald Trump over the weekend, on Sunday posted an AI-generated image of a massive strike on Tel Aviv, warning of a potential Iranian nuclear attack; his main opponent, meanwhile, argued Netanyahu posed a threat to democracy and issued a “final wake-up call.”

Coalition horse-trading could determine who takes power, but Netanyahu’s legacy will loom large regardless: The premier’s challenger endorses many of his policies (albeit some implicitly) meaning “Israel no longer needs Bibi to pursue Bibi-ism,” Bloomberg’s Israel bureau chief noted.