It will be a tough struggle for the mastery of Israel in the impending elections. The uncertainty has deepened since Friday with Benjamin Netanyahu running neck and neck in the latest opinion polls against his principal challenger, former army chief Benny Gantz. Neither the ruling Likud party nor Mr Gantz’ Blue and White alliance appear to have a clear route to the Prime Minister’s office.

Confusion gets worse confounded with Mr Netanyahu recently displaying a map of the Jordan Valley to buttress his election pledge to annex part of the West Bank. Far from sure whether he will be re-elected, he has unveiled a rather aggressive action plan, which has been binned by Palestinians with a remark that sounds pretty much helpless ~ ‘We are already destroyed’. On Tuesday, Netanyahu vowed to extend Israeli sovereignty over Jewish settlements and up to a third of the occupied West Bank if he is re-elected.

If carried out, the plan would trap more than 2.5 million Palestinians in dislocated enclaves surrounded by Israel. The move, for decades considered an endgame scenario for Palestinian aspirations of statehood, was condemned by Arab countries, the UN and the European Union as an illegal land grab. Netanyahu is battling for his political survival, and the announcement was interpreted as a rallying cry to his hardline rightwing base. Indeed, the pledges of the Likud party have been so divisive as to make the campaign the nastiest and most racist ever. With a decisive mandate an uncertain quantity, both parties will have to make deals with smaller parties to form a government in Jerusalem.

The results will almost immediately trigger a bout of political negotiations before it is clear as to who will be Israel’s new leader. Misgivings that it could be curtains for Netanyahu’s 13-year tenure ~ the longest for any Israeli leader ~ the Prime Minister has made divisive and potentially explosive promises in the closing stages of the campaign. In a sense, he has reinforced the historical ferment in Middle East politics. The campaign style has provoked a searing indictment by Israeli commentators ~ “The plunge to the bottom of the sewer, the dive into the depths of the morass that we’ve seen in the past few weeks ~ it has all come straight from the top,” wrote Yossi Verter.

The annexation is a popular proposition with the rightwing voters whom Netanyahu has been courting. This election will be the second to be held in five months after a political crisis in May scuppered the newly elected Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Netanyahu appeared to have won the ballot in April when he and rightwing parliamentary allies came out ahead. However, his attempts to form a coalition government failed over disagreements between Jewish ultra-Orthodox parties and secular politicians. Contextualised with the three corruption cases, Netanyahu is battling for his political survival.