Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s settlement policy resembles his predecessors’ in many ways, but it is a march toward permanence in a time when prospects for peace are few.

B’Tselem’s founders intended it to serve a purpose unlike any other organisation in Israel’s fractious political atmosphere: to provide pure information about the Israeli military’s treatment of Palestinians, without commentary or political agenda. But by last summer, this stance had become a source of controversy.

Four days before elections, most surveys have Netanyahu’s party 3-4 seats behind Herzog’s.

“Voters know normalcy is an illusion, but they want a leader who can give them a few days of peace without talking about constant vigilance and regional deterrence,” writes Anshel Pfeffer

Likud officials aren’t waiting for the election results. On Wednesday, following less than favorable polls, senior officials labeled the election campaign a failure, and blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the party’s poor showing in the polls ahead of Election Day on Tuesday.

“The elections for the 20th Knesset give the public an opportunity to change the government and bring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long term to an end. This must be the voters’ goal next Tuesday,” the editors of Ha’aretz write.

Defense officials want a fence to be built on the Jordanian border to ward off any jihadi infiltrators and protect the new Timna airport, whose construction is due to be completed next year.

Palestinians throughout the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip are hoping Israel’s general election will bring about change, but even if it does, many still doubt their lot will improve.

“With security tensions on the rise in the West Bank, there is talk of conspiracy in which Hamas, Israel and ex-Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan are spreading chaos with the goal of toppling President Mahmoud Abbas,” writes Daoud Kuttab.

Yesterday marked the end of a three-day strike declared by Gaza’s fishermen in mourning and protest over the killing of one of their colleagues and the injury and arrest of two others by Israeli naval forces last Saturday. This was the first time since the deadly fighting over the summer of 2014 that a fisherman has been killed off the coast of Gaza.

A task force of former senior U.S. military leaders has released a report finding, “[f]uture, and perhaps even ongoing, conflicts will match the U.S. military against adversaries employing Hamas’s unlawful tactics that increase civilian casualties so as to undermine the legitimacy of U.S. military operations, encourage international actors to condemn and pressure the United States and sap its will to continue such campaigns.”