“Netanyahu’s party trails in the polls, and he has no one to blame but himself,” writes Mitchell Plitnick. “Will Tuesday’s election end his reign?”

FMEP Program Director Mitchell Plitnick explains why even though the center-left ‘Zionist Camp’ party is leading over the current Likud party in the polls, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will probably keep his seat.

The latest election polls published Friday show Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni’s Zionist Camp leading Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party by four seats.

Daniel Levy discusses the most likely coalition outcomes for Israel’s election.

Much attention has been given to the Jewish-Arab Hadash party’s unification with the Arab parties, which are running in the current election under the name the “Joint List” (not the Arab Joint List, as much of the Israeli press is reporting). Even if this was done in order to ensure the parties pass the election threshold, it has turned into a major force on the Israeli political map, joining together communists, nationalists, Islamists, Arabs and Jews.

Israelis will vote in snap elections on March 17, but it will take several weeks of negotiations on coalition building before the composition of Israel’s next government—and the prime minister at its helm—is known. Even as many specifics of its agenda will be shaped in this process, any government will face certain common challenges. Five experts weigh in on the pressing diplomatic, geopolitical, and socioeconomic issues.

Zionist Union has a plan. Yisrael Beytenu has a plan. Jewish Home has a plan. Meretz has a plan. Even the centrist Yesh Atid has a plan. But the Likud party, which has ruled Israel for more than half a decade, has no clear-cut program on how to deal with the Palestinian question.

President Reuven Rivlin will try to facilitate the formation of a national unity government led by the Likud and the Zionist Union after Tuesday’s election but will not force it, sources close to Rivlin said Saturday night.

“The Israeli prime minister called elections hoping to strengthen his coalition, but he underestimated the personal resentment many Israelis feel toward him,” writes Noam Sheizaf. “One shouldn’t, however, confuse the fierce competition for power with a battle over ideas: even if Labor wins, the end of the occupation is not around the corner.”

How is the Palestinian media covering Israeli elections? What do they think of the Joint List? A media survey covering Palestinian outlets in Israel proper, the West Bank, Gaza and beyond. And an interview with the editor of Hamas’ official newspaper.