Counting shows Netanyahu victory in Israel with greater advantage than expected

With more than 86% of votes counted in Israel, the ultranationalist coalition headed by former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appears to have won most seats in the Knesset, the country’s parliament, in Tuesday’s elections.

So far, the bloc of right-wing parties has embraced 65 out of 120 seats. The center-left bloc would take 50 seats, and the independents, 5. The comfortable advantage of Netanyahu’s coalition paves the way for the return of the former prime minister, who led the country for 15 years, to power.

In the division between subtitles, Likud, Netanyahu’s party, would take the biggest share, with 32 seats, followed by the centrist Yesh Atid (Has a Future), of the current prime minister, Yair Lapid, who would take 24 seats.

The numbers paint an even more comfortable scenario for Netanyahu than the one outlined at the exit, when the former premier’s bloc appeared with a possible 61 or 62 seats in the Knesset, against about 54 or 55 for Lapid’s bloc and 4 for the independent.

Perhaps the main feature of the likely winning coalition is the rise of far-right parties, a factor that Israelis will have to deal with more broadly in the next legislature.

The third party with the most power in the future Parliament (14 seats), after all, will be Religious Zionism, which, among other things, defends the expulsion of Arab citizens who do not swear allegiance to Israel.

The factor has been listed by Palestinians as worrying, since the election took place in a context of growing tension in the West Bank.

Bassam Salhe, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Reuters that the result would increase a “hostile attitude towards the Palestinian people” and intensify the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

Along the same lines, Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the radical Hamas faction, said Israel is leaning towards extremism. “Netanyahu’s governments have launched several wars against the Palestinian people; the presence of more extreme figures means we will face even more Zionist violence.”

Another episode of the escalating violence was recorded on Tuesday, this time near a checkpoint in the West Bank town of Modiin. According to the Israeli army, a 54-year-old Palestinian tried to run over an Israeli soldier and attack him with an axe. The soldier, who would have been injured, shot the man, who died.

Former Prime Minister Netanyahu commented on the incident, expressing on a social network solidarity with the member of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). “I wish the officer a speedy recovery. Congratulations on eliminating the terrorist! Proud of you,” he wrote.

The most recent elections also drew attention for their high turnout — voting is not mandatory in Israel. As announced by the Electoral Committee at the end of voting, at 10 pm local time, 71.3% of voters (or 4.8 million) had voted. In the 2021 election, the turnout was only 67.45%.

Tried in corruption cases involving suspected bribery and fraud, Netanyahu, perhaps the best-known face of local politics, is less than 18 months away from power. He stepped down as prime minister in June 2021 after the Knesset confirmed Naftali Bennett as the new prime minister.

Bennett then led an eight-party coalition — the so-called contraption — that ranged from the radical left to the nationalist right. The group was successful in approving the national budget, one of the main challenges on the table. Until, in April of this year, the crisis knocked at the door.

After the coalition lost the narrow majority it had in Parliament, the legislature voted in June to dissolve it and new elections. Bennett was then replaced by Yair Lapid, hitherto chancellor, a center progressive. The exchange between the two would already take place, as provided for in the arrangement to sew the coalition, but only after two years of government. With the political crisis, it was advanced.