Israeli President Reuven Rivlin Says Constant Votes Very Troubling

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Tuesday urged the public not to be disheartened by the fourth round of elections in just two years, and called on citizens to exercise their right to try to break through the political deadlock.

For his part, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped this would prove “the last election” of the two-year political crisis.

Rivlin, who voted at a balloting station set up in a school in the Beit Hakerem neighborhood of Jerusalem, stressed the importance of the democratic process.

“I am doing this for the last time as president, but also as a very concerned citizen,” he said. “Even in the midst of the great difficulties we are in, elections for the Knesset are the holy of holies of our democracy.”

The president lamented that four rounds of voting in relatively quick succession were “harming public faith in the democratic process, but the power to influence is only in your hands. There is no other way.”

Many party leaders and prominent politicians voted early and likewise urged the public to participate in the election, while some warned of the dire consequences of a failure to back their parties.

Other right-wing party leaders also cast their votes in the hours after polling booths opened at 7 a.m.

Religious Zionism’s Bezalel Smotrich, voting in the West Bank settlement of Kedumim, expressed optimism that a right-wing government headed by Netanyahu was within reach.