A Pro-Pot Candidate Could Prove Decisive in Israeli Election

The surprise candidate shaking up the last days of the campaign before Israelis head to the polls on Tuesday is a far-right nationalist libertarian who advocates small government, legalizing marijuana and a free-market economy.

While the candidate, Moshe Feiglin, the leader of the Zehut party, remains on the fringes in the election, his message is attracting enough young and disaffected voters that he could emerge as kingmaker in a close race between the two main contenders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, a former army chief. Under Israel’s parliamentary system, even a few seats could be enough to give one side or the other a majority coalition.

While the pro-marijuana stance has received some notice, it is his economic message that is resonating with young voters who are fed up with Israel’s same-old politics and exorbitant cost of living.

“I don’t smoke,” said Dor Thaler, 24, who runs an e-commerce business and was attending a recent town hall meeting in Kiryat Gat, a working-class town in southern Israel. “But I like everything else about his platform.”