[imagesource: Win McNamee/Getty]

Next Tuesday, millions of Americans head to the polls to vote for the country’s next president.

Via early voting and mail-in ballots, close to 60 million Americans had already formally cast their decision by yesterday morning, and this year could see the highest turnout since the 1908 presidential election.

Traditionally, in recent years, a higher turnout has favoured Democratic candidates, and there’s no doubt that Trump and his campaign will be sweating as the votes flood in.

You’d think that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been paying attention to those results, because he wasn’t quite ready to slam ‘Sleepy’ Joe Biden during a phone call on Friday.

Here’s Sky News:

With reporters gathered in the Oval Office to mark the signing of a historic US-brokered peace deal between Israel and Sudan, the US president asked Benjamin Netanyahu, who was on speakerphone, if Joe Biden could have secured such a deal.

Trump would have hoped that Netanyahu joined in on the name-calling, but that wasn’t to be:

Trump: “Do you think Sleepy Joe could have made this deal, Bibi, Sleepy Joe?”

Israeli PM Netanyahu: “Uh … well … Mr. President, one thing I can tell you is we appreciate the help for peace from anyone in America.” pic.twitter.com/LU02tEOXtK

— The Recount (@therecount) October 23, 2020

To be fair, Netanyahu did go on to thank Trump personally, but made sure he steered clear of mocking Biden.

You’ll find many of the world’s sitting leaders generally refrain from mocking and belittling their rivals with kindergarten nicknames.

Still, you can be sure that Netanyahu is hoping Trump is reelected:

There is no question that a Trump victory would be preferable for Mr Netanyahu, whose policies in the Middle East have been backed, and, to a large extent, driven by the Trump administration…

It’s not clear quite how policy in the Middle East would shift under a Biden presidency.

While it’s unlikely that any of the Trump-brokered deals would be unpicked, it is probable that greater attempts would be made to bring the Palestinians back into the fold.

Whilst voting will conclude next week, mail-in ballots will still trickle in for a few days after that.

It would more than likely take around a week for the results to be clear, should both candidates accept the results.

Trump has refused to say whether or not he will accept the results, so a legal battle involving recounts could well be on the cards.

In short, the ugliness of the past four years will only become uglier over the next few weeks.

[source:skynews]