Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Religious Zionism Chairman and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich convened an urgent emergency consultation Tuesday afternoon with dozens of municipal council heads and local authority leaders, mounting an aggressive push to boost right-wing turnout in the final hours of the 26th Knesset elections.
1+During the closed-door conference, the two leaders issued sharp warnings about verified spikes in voter participation in Arab municipalities and traditional center-left urban strongholds. They called upon municipal leaders to immediately activate neighborhood campaign machinery and deploy field volunteers door-to-door to extract every potential ballot. Addressing the gathered municipal leadership, Netanyahu focused sharp criticism on Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, framing his faction as a diversion from the national camp.
“We need to awaken the people, get them out of their homes to vote, and make sure they do not, God forbid, vote for Liberman,” Netanyahu stated. “That is not right-wing; that is fake right. We can win provided that we get our people out to the polls. You need to bring the authentic right out to vote—without Liberman. If he does not clear the electoral threshold, those mandates shift directly to us.” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich echoed the prime minister’s stark assessment, warning that soaring aggregate turnout places the governing coalition at immediate risk of losing power. Smotrich issued explicit logistical instructions to local authority leaders across Judea and Samaria, directing an urgent redeployment of personnel toward metropolitan centers. “Leave only the civil defense rapid-response squads in the communities,” Smotrich instructed.
“Everyone else goes down into the cities, connects to the staging hubs led by Binyamin Governor Israel Gantz and the joint Likud-Religious Zionism command, and goes door-to-door.”
1+Smotrich added a direct appeal regarding right-wing micro-factions, arguing that the math of historic turnout makes voting for sub-threshold lists untenable: “Explain to the public why they must not cast ballots for Winter and others, because they will not cross the electoral threshold due to these soaring turnout rates. It is completely without hope.”
The emergency conference highlights mounting apprehension across right-wing party headquarters as the election heads toward its evening conclusion, with party strategists mobilizing municipal leaders to prevent vote leakage to marginal lists and reverse turnout deficits in key population centers.
The unusual rally was held during the critical hours of election day, as Likud and Religious Zionism attempt to spark a surge in turnout in right-wing strongholds and prevent the loss of votes to parties that may remain outside the Knesset.