On 31 October, Israel’s former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “neutralize” the recently signed maritime border agreement with Lebanon, if his bid to regain the prime minister’s post is successful.

According to The Times of Israel, Netanyahu noted, “I will behave as I did with the Oslo Accords,” he said, claiming those agreements with the Palestinians “were not canceled, they were neutralized.”

On 11 October, Netanyahu officially rejected the maritime border agreement with Lebanon and accused incumbent Prime Minister Yair Lapid of surrendering to threats from the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, according to EFE.

“This is not a historic agreement but a historic surrender,” Netanyahu said via his Facebook social network profile.

“Israel cannot afford to have a weak and inexperienced prime minister,” he said, before stressing that a government led by him “would return to Israel a strong, experienced and responsible leadership.”

According to local media, Netanyahu has used the maritime agreement with Lebanon as an electoral weapon, since Israel will hold its fifth election in less than four years on 1 November.

Also, the former Prime Minister assured that far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir is a viable candidate for police minister if his bid to reclaim the premiership is successful.

“I don’t disqualify him” for the post of public security minister, but “there are a lot of candidates”, he said according to The Times of Israel.

Ben Gvir, was seen in a video on the evening of 13 October, wielding a pistol in the occupied east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and urging settlers and police to shoot at Palestinians who throw stones at the occupation forces.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu retains a small advantage over his rivals in recent polls leading up to the 1 November election.

The latest polls give 61 seats to the bloc of far-right allies, which would back Netanyahu’s return to the head of government and just enough for a majority of Israel’s 120-seat Parliament, Alarabiya News reported.

The opposing bloc, led by the current Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, would obtain 56 seats, and his party would reach 27 deputies, the highest number in the entire campaign, and well above its result in the last elections of March 2021, according to the Wall Street Journal.