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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cast his vote in Tuesday’s election. Netanyahu is facing a stiff challenge from Isaac Herzog of the centrist Zionist Union.(March 17)
AP

JERUSALEM — Benjamin Netanyahu made a last-ditch appeal to supporters of his right-wing Likud Party to turn out for Israel’s election Tuesday and avert defeat for the long-serving prime minister.

« This is a fateful struggle, a close struggle, » Netanyahu, who is seeking a fourth term, declared Monday in the face of polls showing him trailing his center-left opponent. « We must close this gap. We can close this gap, » he told a crowd of backers.

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After casting his ballot early on Tuesday, Netanyahu said he would not allow a Palestinian state to be established.He claimed that any state established alongside Israel would be controlled by Islamic extremists who « will attack us with rockets, » the Associated Press reported.

Isaac Herzog, whose Zionist Union coalition was leading in the polls, confidently predicted an « upheaval » was imminent, the AP said. Polls will close at 10 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET).

The final polls released Friday showed Likud trailing the Zionist Union by two to four seats in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. Although Netanyahu is favored on security issues, voters prefer Herzog on domestic concerns, such as the high cost of living, which is resonating as a top issue in this election.

Under Israel’s electoral system, the president asks the leader of the party that wins the most seats to cobble together at least 61 of the 120 Knesset seats needed to form a coalition government. That process could take weeks, and if the winner can’t form a coalition, the runner-up can try to form a coalition government.

On Monday, an internal Likud poll found that 49.6% of Israelis believe Netanyahu will form the next government, down from 63.3% on March 9, according to TheJerusalem Post. The newspaper said the polls were conducted by McLaughlin and Associates, a U.S. Republican group working for the Netanyahu campaign.

A top 2012 campaign aide to President Obama is working for a group seeking to oust Netanyahu, who has strained relations with the White House over his outspoken opposition to U.S. negotiations with Iran on a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program.

Netanyahu campaigned Monday in Har Homa, an upscale Jerusalem neighborhood built on territory that Israel captured in its 1967 war to underscore his promise that Jerusalem will never be divided under any peace accord with Palestinians. They claim the land as part of their future state.

The prime minister charged that Herzog would divide the city by ceding parts of east Jerusalem to the Palestinians in a future peace deal. The city was physically divided from 1948 to 1967, until Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan.

Netanyahu told Har Homa residents he will « continue to build and fortify » all of Jerusalem. He also ruled out establishing a Palestinian state if he is kept in office. He made the pledge in a videotaped interview posted Monday on the nrg news website, the AP reported.

The international community, including the Obama administration, considers Har Homa an illegal settlement.

Herzog vowed to keep Jerusalem’s Jewish sites under Israeli sovereignty in any future peace deal. He has said he would freeze construction of some new settlements and consider relinquishing territory and Jewish settlements in a negotiated peace deal with the Palestinians.