When sirens started warning over rocket fire from the Gaza Strip Sept. 10, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to step off the stage in Ashdod where he was addressing an election rally. But shortly after his humiliating removal from the stage, Netanyahu got right back on the campaign trail, with the same message he has been trumpeting for the last few weeks: “They are trying to steal the election from us!” He even called the Knesset back into session Sept. 11, so that he could fast-track his Camera Bill at breakneck speed, something never done before during an Israeli election. The law would have allowed representatives of the different parties to install cameras in the various polling stations on election day. He did this even though General Attorney Avichai Mandelblit opposed such urgent legislation on the eve of an election, and the fact that the law wasn’t even approved by the Knesset’s Regulatory Committee Sept. 9. As expected, Netanyahu failed to get the necessary majority, and the new law was rejected.
The question that needs to be asked is why Netanyahu insisted on moving ahead with his Camera Bill in the first place. What was he trying to achieve? The answer is that he had several goals. He wanted to create chaos in the polling stations on election day; he wanted to discourage Arab citizens of Israel from going to the polling booths and voting; and he wanted to apply pressure to his supporters by relaying a sense of real risk — "They are trying to steal the election from us” — so as to maximize the number of voters on the right.
