DIMONA — In the remote Negev Desert town of Dimona, long a bastion of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, disenchanted voters are going door-to-door campaigning for his top rival, hoping to bring down the veteran prime minister in Israel's election on Tuesday, Reuters reported on Sunday.

Source: Reuters via Northland News Radio

The ballot is Israel's first since Hamas' October 7, 2023 surprise attack, Reuters reported. The October 7 security breach saw Likud's popularity plummet, and opinion polls for months have predicted Netanyahu's coalition losing its majority — but his top rival, centrist Gadi Eisenkot, has no clear path to power either, and the race has become tighter as the election nears, it reported.

Source: Reuters via Northland News Radio

"We must have change. Bibi has to go," said Yossi Assayag, 74, who says he has supported Likud most of his life, according to Reuters. "Bibi has brought disaster to Israel." Assayag is part of a cohort of residents trying to convince their community to vote for Eisenkot's party Yashar, which is neck-and-neck with Likud in the polls, Reuters reported. Dimona, where an Iranian missile wounded dozens in March, has become a political battleground, it reported.

Source: Reuters via Northland News Radio

~50%of Dimona voters who cast a ballot for Likud in the 2022 election, Reuters reported
55%of 2022 Likud voters who now say they will vote Likud again, Viterbi Center data cited by Reuters
13%of Israeli voters still undecided, Viterbi Center data cited by Reuters
8%of 2022 Likud voters now backing Yashar, the data cited by Reuters showed

"I will never betray Likud," said Ruti Ohana, a pensioner who says she has voted Likud ever since immigrating to Israel from North Africa more than 60 years ago, according to Reuters. She said Netanyahu was a cut above his rivals, and the blame he receives for October 7 was unfair, it reported.

Source: Reuters via WDSM

While Netanyahu has a hard core of supporters who cannot be won over, the prize is undecided voters who "understand that we are in a state of crisis" and are open to persuasion, said Michal Elmalem Abu, elected to Dimona's city council from Likud and now leading Eisenkot's Dimona campaign, according to Reuters. Of those who voted for Likud in 2022, 15% will support parties aligned against Netanyahu, including 8% for Yashar, another 14% will vote for alternative right-wing parties, and 9% are undecided, the Viterbi Center data cited by Reuters showed.

Source: Reuters via Northland News Radio

It is in places like Dimona where Eisenkot stands a chance to bite a chunk out of Likud's base, said Amotz Asa-El, a political scientist at the Hartman Institute, according to Reuters. Eisenkot, 66, a child of Moroccan immigrants who rose to become military chief of staff, has a personal story that "appeals to a big swath of the Israeli electorate, particularly Likud's traditional electorate", Asa-El said, and the loss of his son, killed in combat in Gaza in December 2023, resonates with voters, Reuters reported.

Source: Reuters via Northland News Radio

Awaaz Punjab's earlier coverage of the final polls put neither bloc above the 61 seats needed for a majority. Read the final-polls report