Via Salon:

… As Netanyahu’s Likud party faltered in public opinion polls in the run-up to today’s election in Israel, with initial exit polls showing it neck and neck with its main electoral rival the Zionist Union, the prime minister frantically attempted to rally his base of support and reconfirm his hard line bona fides to Israel’s more extreme nationalist and pro-settlement constituencies in a gambit to retain power.

Today, the prime minister engaged in racist fear-mongering to boost right-wing turnout, claiming that his government was “in danger” because “Arab voters [Palestinian citizens of Israel, who form approximately 20 percent of Israel’s citizenry] are coming out in droves to the polls.” Netanyahu’s alarmism over Palestinian citizens of Israel exercising their right to vote reflects an increasingly anti-democratic sentiment within Israel’s body politic.