Today, Israelis are heading to the polls to decide whether they want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies to continue to run the Knesset, or whether they would like Isaac Herzog and the Zionist Union to change things up. The race looks impossibly close, and because this is a parliamentary election and there’s no chance that either of the possible prime ministers can form a government alone, there are a host of smaller parties that hold the government’s future in their grasp. Daily Intel talked to Mitchell Plitnick, program director at the Foundation for Middle East Peace, who explained some of the most important variables to keep an eye on.

“Despite setbacks, Bibi is likely to be returned to office in an election that offers little to Palestinians,” writes Lisa Goldman.

“The Zionist Union wants to topple Netanyahu, but without offering a meaningful alternative,” writes Yonatan Mendel. “The Herzog-Livni era promises more of the same, but in a form that’s easy for the international community to digest.”

It is no accident that Herzog’s campaign, like the previous Labor campaign in 2013, has been largely run on domestic issues. Not only are economic and social issues the most pressing items on voters’ minds, the space between Likud and Labor on foreign policy can be measured in inches rather than miles.

“The real hole in the ozone of Israeli democracy is the ongoing lives of over four million people living under a brutal, violent rule, all the while having not even the slightest amount of participation or involvement,” writes Gideon Levy.

Nobody ever thought the window for a two-state solution would ever truly close — or be closed. Benjamin Netanyahu just declared it so in a last-ditched attempt to rally his base ahead of elections.

Under pressure on the eve of a surprisingly close election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Monday doubled down on his appeal to right-wing voters, declaring definitively that if he was returned to office he would never establish a Palestinian state.

The Zionist Union’s Tzipi Livni announced Monday evening that she would give up the rotation of the premiership with the slate’s leader, Isaac Herzog, an agreement the two made months ago when her Hatnua party merged with his Labor Party.

Just hours before the polls open in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promises that if he is elected, there will be no Palestinian state, and manages to obliterate the Zionist Camp’s lead in the polls almost entirely.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s last minute efforts to save his fledgling campaign for a historic fourth term have widened the growing rift between the United States and its long-standing ally in the Middle East.

Leader of parties representing Israel’s Palestinian citizens hopes alliance will become ‘unavoidable force’ in Knesset.