Benjamin Netanyahu’s Election Bid Runs Through Kyiv
Facing a tight race in the polls, the Israeli prime minister is trying to appeal to Russian-speakers at home.
Looking for votes.
Photographer: Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images
In the midst of a hotly contested election and a tussle with U.S. Democrats, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just completed a trip to Ukraine. This is not a hiatus from politics. He is simply moving the campaign trail to Kyiv, 1,800 miles away from the nearest Israeli polling station.
The logic of the trip isn’t hard to discern. There are almost a million Russian speakers in Israel and they turn out in big numbers for elections. In past elections, roughly 40% have cast ballots for Netanyahu’s Likud Party and 30% for the Israeli Bitenu Party, an ethnic Russian list led by Avigdor Lieberman. But that was in the days when the Moldovan-born Lieberman was Netanyahu’s loyal ally.