World News
NewsOnScale Staff
October 27, 2026
Benjamin Netanyahu has been Israel's Prime Minister for a combined 17 years. He is currently on trial for corruption. He is facing an election he is projected to lose. And today — on Election Day — he is running the same playbook that a different powerful man ran in a different country not long ago.
The playbook has a name. Claim the election is being stolen. Film the minority voters. Call it an emergency. Tell your supporters the other side is cheating. Demand they turn out to overwhelm the fraud.
It did not work in Israel in 2015 when Netanyahu first ran it. He apologized for it afterward. He is running it again today.
What Netanyahu said
In a roughly 63-second video released today Netanyahu declared: "Brothers and sisters, Likud voters, this is an emergency call because they are trying to steal the election from us."
He followed it with a post on X: "We're at war for our home. Muslim Brotherhood supporters are raiding the polling stations and stealing the elections. Go out and vote, recover it!!"
He posted that Arab voters were creating "huge lines at polling stations in the Arab sector." He posted about buses heading to polling stations in Arab communities. He highlighted specific activity in the Bedouin city of Rahat in southern Israel. He described the stakes as "preserving our Jewish state" and warned that his opponents would "bring an end to the State of Israel as we know it."
He filmed one of his videos inside a Bat Yam City Hall building — a violation of Israeli election law that explicitly prohibits the use of public property for political campaigning.
What Likud prepared before the election
Haaretz reported before Election Day that Likud had invested millions of shekels to send teams to film Arab voters outside polling stations. Senior Likud officials told the outlet that Netanyahu was considering launching a campaign claiming the election was rigged if he loses — and that the videos from Election Day would be distributed as false evidence that the election was stolen.
The surveillance infrastructure was built before the votes were cast. The narrative was prepared before the outcome was known. The footage was being collected to be deployed in a specific way regardless of what actually happened at the polling stations.
What actually happened at the polling stations
Voter turnout reached 55.7% by 4 PM — the highest recorded in decades. Arab Israeli citizens turned out in significant numbers. They are Israeli citizens. They have the right to vote. High turnout among any community in a democracy is not fraud. It is democracy functioning.
The Israeli Central Elections Committee — the independent body overseeing the vote — has not reported systematic fraud. Three individuals linked to an Arab party were detained on suspicion of election bribery in southern Israel. Netanyahu used that isolated investigation to claim the entire election was being stolen.
Where this playbook comes from
This is not the first time Netanyahu has run this play. In 2015 on Election Day he released a video warning his supporters that "Arab voters are heading to the polls in droves" and could topple his government. The statement drew widespread international criticism. Months later he released a video in English, Hebrew, and Arabic apologizing for the remarks.
"Today I'm asking Arabs to take part in our society in droves," he said in the apology. "I am proud of the role that Arabs play in Israel's success."
That was 2016. Today in 2026 he is back to the original message. The apology expired when the polls turned against him.
The attempt to strike Iran
Yesterday — the day before Israelis voted — Netanyahu reportedly sought to launch fresh military action against Iran. His own military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir pushed back. The attempted strike did not happen.
A sitting prime minister trying to launch a military strike on a foreign country the day before his own election is either a genuine security decision that happened to coincide with election eve or it is an attempt to create a crisis that would benefit the incumbent. His own military's resistance to the plan becoming public suggests the military leadership did not view it purely as a security decision.
Today he is claiming Arab voters are stealing the election. Yesterday he tried to start a war with Iran.
The comparison that writes itself
In the United States in 2020 a president who was losing an election warned for months that mail-in ballots were fraudulent, that minority voters were being bused to polls, that the election was being stolen. On election night before votes were counted he declared victory. In the weeks that followed his allies filed dozens of lawsuits that courts dismissed. On January 6, 2021 a mob attacked the United States Capitol.
That president's DOJ recently filed a preemptive lawsuit to block certification of the Alaska Senate race if the Republican loses. He admitted publicly he personally ordered it.
The playbook is not American. It is not Israeli. It is the playbook of any leader who believes he deserves to hold power more than the people deserve to choose who holds it.
Claim fraud before it happens. Film the minority voters. Call it an emergency. Demand your supporters overwhelm it. And if you lose anyway — the footage is ready.
What happens next
Polls close in Israel tonight. Exit polls will be published immediately after. A final verdict may take weeks of coalition negotiations.
If Netanyahu loses he has prepared the infrastructure to claim he didn't. The footage exists. The narrative is built. The social media posts are archived.
A man who tried to launch a military strike on Iran the day before the election is not a man who has made peace with the possibility of losing.
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