TEL AVIV — Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu decided to end his election campaign in the town of Or Yehuda, a midsized city near Tel Aviv, where he traditionally enjoys enormous popularity. However, in the last election in March 2021 some of his supporters there didn’t bother voting. They were already worn-out.

Over the past few weeks, Netanyahu held similar campaign events in dozens of bastions of support for him and his Likud party. Similarly to Or Yehuda, in these places as well voting rates have dropped in the most recent election round. Looking back, this was one of the major factors that led to Netanyahu’s defeat. In his meetings this time around, Netanyahu has been trying to reach out personally to those Likud supporters who had not voted. He even visited people at home, sometimes two or three Likud-supporting families in one evening.

At the same time, he also increased his media appearances. What was different this time was that he only gave interviews to right-wing outlets that supported him. He made a show of avoiding the studios of the big networks, even though he would have much more exposure there. Here, too, his goal was to focus on the more apathetic Likud voters.

According to the last polls authorized before election day, on Oct. 28, Netanyahu is very close to achieving his goal. The average results of all the polls give Netanyahu 60 seats, and a few extra votes, but still not the 61 he needs to get a Knesset majority. In other words, for the moment, the country is facing yet another stalemate.