Post Date: Post Date – 11:41 PM, Thursday – November 3rd
![Israeli PM Lapid admits defeat to Netanyahu in election](https://cdn.telanganatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Netanyahu.jpg)
(FILE PHOTO) Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won this week’s Israeli election, final results were shown on Thursday
Tel Aviv: Final results on Thursday showed that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won this week’s Israeli election, clearing the way for him to return to power.
Prime Minister Yar Rapid congratulated Netanyahu and instructed his staff to prepare for an organized transition of power, his office said.
“Any political consideration comes first for the State of Israel,” Lapid said. “I wish Netanyahu every success for the sake of the people of Israel and the State of Israel.”
Lapid, who has served as interim prime minister for the past four months, made the announcement ahead of the final results, showing Netanyahu and his religious and ultranationalist allies secure a parliamentary majority.
Netanyahu is expected to form the most right-wing government in the country’s history when he takes power in the coming weeks.
Israel held its fifth election in four years on Tuesday in a protracted political crisis with voters divided over Netanyahu’s suitability to serve while on trial for corruption.
Netanyahu and his ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox allies secured 64 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament or parliament, according to the final result, which still needs to be certified in the coming days. His opponents in the current coalition, led by Rapid, won 51 seats, with the rest occupied by a small Arab party with no affiliation.
Netanyahu’s victory and his majority temporarily ended Israel’s political instability. But it has divided Israelis over their leadership and the values that define their country: Jewishness or democracy.
Netanyahu’s top partner in the government is expected to be the far-right religious Zionist party whose lead candidate, Itamar Ben-Gavier, is a protégé of a racist anti-Arab rabbi.
Ben-Gvir, who says he wants to end Palestinian autonomy in parts of the West Bank, until recently hung a photo in his home of Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli-American, in the Jordan River in 1994 29 Palestinians were killed in West Bank shootings. Ben-Gvir, who tried to oust the Arab lawmaker, said he wanted to be in charge of the national police force.
Religious Zionism has promised changes to Israeli law that could make Netanyahu’s legal woes go away and, along with other nationalist allies, want to weaken judicial independence and focus more power on lawmakers hands.
Party leader Bezalel Smotrich, a West Bank settler with anti-Arab rhetoric, has his sights set on the Ministry of Defence. This will make him the overseer of the army and the military occupation of Israel’s West Bank.
At least four Palestinians were killed in separate incidents and an Israeli policeman was slightly injured in a stabbing wound as the votes were counted.
Ben-Gvir used the incidents to promise a tougher stance against Palestinian attackers once he entered the government.
“It’s time to restore street safety,” he tweeted. “It’s time to eliminate the terrorists who are out to carry out attacks!”
The strength of Israel’s right has come at the expense of its left. The Labour Party, once the mainstream of Israeli politics and backing Palestinian statehood, is teetering on the electoral threshold.
As the count draws to a close, the anti-occupation Meretz appears to be heading for political exile for the first time since its founding in the 1990s.
Merets leader Zehava Gallon admitted that the party will not enter the next parliament. “It’s a disaster for Merets, it’s a disaster for the country, and yes, it’s a disaster for me,” she said.
After the results were officially announced, Israel’s ceremonial president appointed a candidate, Netanyahu, to form the government.
Then he will have four weeks to do so. Netanyahu is likely to end negotiations in that time frame, but religious Zionism is expected to drive tough bargains for its support.
The polarized Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, was ousted in 2021 after 12 consecutive years in power by an ideologically diverse coalition that included an Arab leader for the first time in Israel’s history. small party. The coalition disintegrated in the spring due to infighting.
Netanyahu has been accused of fraud, breach of trust and bribery in a series of scandals involving wealthy colleagues and media tycoons. He denies wrongdoing and sees the trial as a witch hunt orchestrated by a hostile media and a biased justice system.