MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) cast his vote Monday morning at a polling station not far from his home in the haredi city of Bnei Brak. He expressed his hope that this would prove to be the final round of voting and that the winning parties would be able to form a stable government.
"We hope that these elections will be the final ones until the coming of the Messiah," he said. "The truth is that the Jewish People is in great need of redemption. We hope that we will sanctify G-d's Name and emerge successful, and that, with G-d's help, we will not need a repeat round" of elections.
"The person responsible for this round of elections caused great damage to the State of Israel, to the People of Israel," he noted, adding, "and I hope that he will pay the price for this."
While he did not specify to whom he was referring, Gafni's remarks were likely to have been directed at the head of the Yisrael Beytenu party, MK Avigdor Liberman, whose defection from the right-wing camp led to the failure of the previous two elections (held in April and September of 2019) to produce a stable majority coalition government of at least 61 MKs.
Liberman had expressed his desire to form, together with the Likud and Blue and White parties, a secular unity government, but his refusal along with that of key elements in the Blue and White camp to sit in a government under the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, even under a rotational leadership arrangement, led to the collapse of negotiations. Although Liberman now promises that a fourth round of elections will not become necessary, it is unclear what has changed in the interim to make this a realistic promise.