1667496183 Benjamin Netanyahu wins another shot at Israels leadership

Benjamin Netanyahu wins another shot at Israel’s leadership

TEL AVIV – Benjamin Netanyahu won a decisive victory in the country’s fifth election in less than four years, which showed near-final voting results on Thursday, and made a political comeback, successfully unifying his right-wing and religious-nationalist bloc.

Mr Netanyahu rode a wave of ultranationalist sentiment a little over a year after violence erupted between Arabs and Jews in the streets of Israeli cities. Mr Netanyahu rallied his base in daily campaign appearances across the country, often from the back of a van outfitted as a mobile campaign stage called the Bibi-Bus, and reiterated his message that his opponents posed a threat to the security of Jewish Israelis.

In contrast, Yair Lapid, the centrist interim prime minister who took office after the previous government collapsed in the summer, failed to unite a group of centrist, left-wing and Arab parties, two of whom failed to get enough votes to clear the electoral hurdle, required to sit in Parliament.

Mr Lapid conceded to Mr Netanyahu on Thursday evening. “I wish Netanyahu success for the good of the people of Israel and the State of Israel,” he said in a statement.

With 99% of the vote counted as of Thursday, Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party retained its 32-seat lead and his right-wing religious and nationalist bloc was on track to win 64 in the 120-seat parliament, or Knesset, according to Israeli national broadcaster Kan.

Mr Lapid’s Yesh Atid party remained on course to win 24 seats and his bloc of right, left and Arab parties was on course to secure 51. An alliance of communists and Palestinian nationalists who have said they will not join any government won a further five seats.

The referendum was evenly split, with around 49% of the vote going to Mr Netanyahu and 49% to his opponents.

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Yohanan Plesner, president of the Jerusalem-based think tank Israel Democracy Institute, said Mr Netanyahu won because he perfectly orchestrated a bloc that would put him in power.

“He didn’t waste a single vote,” said Mr. Plesner. “In contrast to the anti-Netanyahu bloc, which got a similar number of votes but lost 10 seats in the Knesset because of lousy organization and political architecture.”

The results mark an impressive return to power for Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, who continues to be a deeply divisive figure. He is loved by many Israelis, who refer to him as the “King of Israel”. But many Israelis believe he has been in power for too long and don’t believe he should be prime minister while he is undergoing a trial on corruption charges, which he denies.

While Mr. Netanyahu is known to many abroad as a skilled diplomat and orator, in Israel it is his shrewd political skills that have kept him at the helm of his country longer than anyone before him. Mr Netanyahu has been elected prime minister five times over the course of 15 years.

His success in that election was spurred by a surge in popularity for ultranationalist religious lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir, who vowed to impose tougher measures on West Bank Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel who commit violence against Jews. Mr Ben-Gvir’s national religious alliance was set to win 14 seats, according to Kan, which would make it the third largest party in the Knesset.

Benjamin Netanyahu wins another shot at Israels leadership

Ultranationalist religious lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir has seen a surge in popularity.

Photo: Jalaa Marey/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

“There is fear in the streets and he will deal with it,” said Jerusalemite Avishai Katz, 18, who voted for Mr Ben-Gvir. “He’s the only one who cares about terrorism, about sovereignty.”

Mr Netanyahu was able to capitalize on Mr Ben-Gvir’s rising popularity by orchestrating an alliance of ultra-nationalist parties. Mr Netanyahu and Mr Ben-Gvir both attacked their opponents for allowing an Islamist party to join the previous government, the first time an Arab party had done so in the state’s history. Both men accused a government with an Arab party of never being able to fight terrorism aggressively.

Over several months as interim prime minister, Mr Lapid built his international profile but failed to unite the left. Rather than join forces with larger parties, two smaller center-left parties stood on their own and appear to have miscalculated badly, analysts said.

On Thursday, the left-wing Meretz party and Balad, an Arab party, each had about 3% of the vote – just below the 3.25% threshold that parties need to enter the Knesset. Had they signed agreements with major parties, their votes could have helped the anti-Netanyahu bloc get enough seats to deny Mr. Netanyahu power, but instead those votes are discarded.

“It is true that Netanyahu was smart enough to crystallize his bloc, but the left lost the elections more than Netanyahu won the elections,” said Aviv Bushinsky, a former adviser to Mr Netanyahu.

For Meretz, this is the first time since its founding in 1992 that the party has not sat in the Knesset. The Labor Party, one of the country’s founding parties, just cleared the electoral roll, taking four seats, the minimum number.

When Balad merged with other Arab parties in 2019, it gained 15 seats and was the third largest party in the Knesset. All Arab-led parties together won just 10 seats in Tuesday’s elections.

For many Israelis on the left, the election results were devastating. Mr Ben-Gvir’s alliance has promised to weaken the country’s judiciary to give elected officials more power, and many on the left view him as a racist. Mr Ben-Gvir has denied being a racist.

Natalie Ginsburg, 83, of Jerusalem, said she felt “absolutely awful” about the election results. Ms Ginsburg has been protesting the Israeli occupation in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and is concerned that a government of which Mr Ben-Gvir is a part could use violence against dissidents like her. She is also concerned about the rights of women and LGBT Israelis.

“They’re certainly medieval in every way, not just as far as the Palestinians are concerned,” said Ms Ginsburg, who voted for Meretz.

In the coming days, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will choose the leader he believes has the best chance of assembling a governing coalition, usually the party leader who wins the most seats or receives the most government-forming recommendations from other lawmakers. That person has up to six weeks to try to cobble together a majority coalition that includes support from smaller parties.

Tuesday’s election marked the fifth time Israelis have voted since 2019. As a sign of the stakes involved, all sides urged their supporters to come out and vote in large numbers. About 71.3% of eligible voters went to the ballot box, the highest number since 2015, according to the Israel Central Electoral Committee.

write to Shayndi Raice at [email protected]

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