“I can’t remember another US election where Israelis were this interested, and I don’t just mean journalists," Israel Hayom political reporter Ariel Kahana told Al-Monitor today. "Family and friends called me late at night to ask: ‘So, how will it turn out?’” Kahana has covered many US elections from Israel. He said Israelis' intense emotional involvement in the election is unlike anything he had seen before.

The last presidential election in 2016 saw Hillary Clinton run against Donald Trump. While the contest received extensive coverage, Israelis were uninvested. This time was different. Many Israelis stayed up all night to follow the latest developments overseas, even with no decisive outcome in sight. They became experts on American politics, counting votes in the Electoral College and discussing the outcomes in Michigan and Pennsylvania. The bitter race found Israelis as divided as Americans. Leading figures on the left supported Joe Biden, while the right backed Donald Trump. Most Israelis identify with the right, and even many centrists and members of the moderate left hoped against hope for a Trump victory. If Trump had run for election here, he would have won by a huge margin.

Channel 20 began its evening broadcast on Tuesday with leading right-wing media personalities as guest anchors: Yinon Magal, Erel Segal and Shimon Raklin, all of them powerful presences on Twitter. They composed and performed a song praising Trump based on Bob Dylan's iconic “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.” “People,” they asked, “is America standing up to save the nation, to save Israel?” and concluded, “Make peace, our dear Donald. We’re with you until midnight.”

But despite Trump’s impressive history, the electoral pendulum seemed to be swinging against him. In response, Israeli right-wing media outlets and social media users began claiming that the election was stolen from him.