With just two weeks before the Nov. 1 elections, polls indicate a tie between the right-wing and religious bloc of parties led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the centrist and left-wing bloc led by caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid.

A few thousand voters, perhaps tens of thousands, will determine the winner and the fate of Israeli democracy. Declarations by several Netanyahu associates have left little room for doubt over his intentions, if he achieves even a slim Knesset majority of 61 seats (out of 120), a result that eluded him in the four previous elections held since April 2019. Netanyahu will have little compunction about instituting a legal-constitutional upheaval reshaping the country’s regime and burying his criminal trial on bribery charges.

This precarious situation (of a possible tie, again) gives rise to growing concerns of external interference or domestic manipulation designed to tip the scales in either direction. A previous article reported that Israel’s Shin Bet security service had reached out to its Russian counterpart in order to forestall intervention in the elections. The appeal was made by Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar under instructions from Lapid.

Russia has a known record of cyberintervention in foreign elections, but is not the only suspect. Israel is engaged in a powerful cyberwar with Iran, and is also eyeing potential interference from that direction. On the eve of the April 2019 elections, then-Shin Bet Chief Nadav Argaman raised the specter of cyber meddling by a foreign power to sway the voting. Argaman sounded his warning at a closed-door Tel Aviv University conference, but while his leaked remarks did not mention the name of the suspected power, it was subsequently reported that he had been referring to Russia. His comments angered then-Prime Minister Netanyahu given Israel's delicate relationship with Moscow.