Netanyahu moves closer to returning to power as his coalition gathers 65 seats

Benjamin Netanyahu, where on trial for corruption, he came closer today to his goal of being, together with his allies, once more in the prime ministership of Israel.

After Tuesday’s parliamentary election, Israeli television networks gave Netanyahu’s Likud and its allies — the ultra-Orthodox parties and far-right “Religious Zionism” — 62 seats, one more than they need to have a majority in the Knesset.

Then the Electoral Commission began to slowly announce the first results, confirming this trend.

This morning, with 93.3% of the vote counted, Netanyahu’s “coalition of the right” has 65 seats – 32 for Likud, 19 for the ultra-Orthodox parties and 14 for the far right – and is on course to form the most right-wing government in the country. history of Israel, according to analysts.

His government Yair Lapid “It has come to an end,” far-right leader Itamar Ben Gvir said. “The time has come to return safety to the streets, to restore order, to show who’s boss, the time has come to kill a terrorist who launches an attack,” he stressed, after the police announcement that he had killed a Palestinian who attacked and injured three police officers in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The outgoing prime minister Yair Lapid, head of the centrist party Ges Atid (There is a Future) gathers 24 seats and his ally Benny Gantz 12, followed by two other parties with 9 seats each and the Arab parties with 10 seats.

Under Israel’s electoral system, a party must garner 3.25 percent to enter the four-seat parliament.

Two parties hostile to Netanyahu’s coalition, the left-wing Meretz and the Arab Ballad, gather 3.15% and 2.97% respectively and their fate rests in the hands of the last votes left to be counted, those mainly of the military and health .

Negotiations

Lapid, who celebrates his 59th birthday at the weekend, last year formed a motley coalition that included parties of the right, the left, the center as well as an Arab one, aimed at ousting Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.

“Bibi” did not leave politics as his opponents would have liked, but remained head of Likud with the aim of returning to power so that his MPs would again grant him immunity and his corruption trial would be overturned.

Once the final results are known, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will ask the head of the party with the most votes to form a government. He will have a term of 42 days.

However, according to the Israeli press, the Netanyahu camp does not expect the official green light, with the former prime minister having already asked Yariv Levin, his close associate, to start negotiations mainly with “Religious Zionism”.

THE Bezalel Smotrich, head of the party, has stated that he wants the Ministry of Defense and the second in the hierarchy of the party Itamar Ben Gvir the Ministry of Internal Security, two key positions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, at a time when the tension is particularly acute.

Their appointment to these critical ministries could “embarrass Netanyahu on the international stage,” the Palestinian analyst said. Khaldoun Barghouti.

Without wanting to “speculate about the government” the US State Department expressed the hope that “all Israeli officials continue to share the values ​​of an open, democratic and tolerant society that respects all civil society and especially minorities”.

RES-EMP

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