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Europe prepares for post-election Israel

Indications that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might lose the elections have driven some 200 foreign correspondents to Israel as the European Union follows closely.
Isaac Herzog (C), co-leader of the centre-left Zionist Union party, speaks to the media after voting for the parliamentary election at a polling station in Tel Aviv March 17, 2015. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's march towards becoming the longest-serving leader of Israel could be halted on Tuesday in an election that has exposed public fatigue with his stress on national security rather than socio-economic problems. Surging rhetoric against Iran and the Palestinians has done little to close Net
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When the polling stations close in just a few hours, Israeli TV will release the results of the 2015 election's exit polls. At time of writing, the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem had no information about Israeli missions abroad that are planning to host election parties — the kind of traditional diplomatic event to which top journalists, politicians and opinion-shapers are invited, so that together they can watch the celebration of democracy at the end of election day.

One Israeli diplomat serving at a major embassy in Europe told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that most journalists who cover foreign affairs in the capital, where he is posted, have decided this time to go to Israel themselves, so that they can get a bird’s eye view of what the local media is describing as Israel’s most riveting and important election ever. “What is happening and what could happen suddenly seems interesting to them,” the diplomat said.

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