Jerusalem: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s consummate political survivor, is facing the fight of his life in Tuesday elections, drawing on over three decades of experience to convince voters he is still the only candidate capable of keeping them safe.

The silver-tongued 77-year-old’s security-first reputation was all but shattered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, and his main rival - plain-spoken ex-army chief Gadi Eisenkot - has channelled public anger over the failure and is running neck and neck with Netanyahu in polls.

Now the premier is pulling out all the stops, touting an endorsement from Donald Trump, warning that hostile powers want him to lose, and stoking fears of a Palestinian state - opposed by a majority of Israelis - should his opponents triumph.

His election campaign has leaned heavily on a single slogan, visible on posters throughout the country: “Either the Right or Palestine.”

Off the campaign trail, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister faces an international arrest…