The Israeli election results came out as the polls had predicted and the far-right parties managed to secure more that half of the 120 parliament seats.
Faraan: According to the votes counted, the Likud, led by the ex-PM Benjamin Netanyahu took a lead with winning 31 seats. The Religious Zionist Party, featuring Itamar Ben-Gvir, won 14 seats, Shas, led by Aryeh Deri, won 12 seats, and United Torah Judaism, led by Moshe Gafni and Yitzhak Goldknopd, won 8 seats. So, Likud together with its allies won 65 seats and is set to form a new government.
61 seats are needed to form a cabinet, and Netanyahu and his allies will not have a difficult path forming a cabinet. On the other side, the left-wing and moderate camp led by the current PM Yair Lapid won only 50 seats. In addition to the two present factions, Arab parties present in this election won 5 Knesset seats in total.
The turnout rate was reported 66.3 percent, which shows a 5.4 percent increase compared to the previous elections, and it is the highest participation rate since 1999. It seems that the propaganda of the hard-liners has been effective in convincing the Israelis to vote. Netanyahu, who has been out of power for 17 months, now finds himself one step away from the prime minister’s seat and will likely form a cabinet of his choice in the coming weeks with the help of far-right parties.
Netanyahu, served as PM from 1996 to 1999 and from 2008 to 2021, is preparing for another four-year term. He, who was involved in corruption cases for the past three years and at stake of imprisonment, is seeking to regain power and escape from the ongoing corruption trial by assuming the PM post again. He, 73, supports settlement projects in the West Bank, which has been occupied since the 1967 war. Settlements in these areas are considered illegal under international law but the Israeli governments have never yielded to international rulings and resolutions.
Given the election results, the upcoming cabinet will be the most hard-line one in two decades, and this issue will lead to fundamental changes in the occupied territories with the regard to the tendencies and stances of the far-right leaders. As the Palestinians put it, the rise of the far-right is indicative of the growing racism in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Among Likud allies is Ben-Gvir who had been charged with support to a terrorist organization and racism incitement. He has several times caused controversy in settler demonstrations in Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and called for serious confrontation of the Palestinians and even their massacre for full occupation of their lands.
Some experts predict that Ben-Gvir will be given the post of public security as he had expressed his interest for this post. Last year, during the clashes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Al-Quds, Ben-Gvir was among the Israeli soldiers and shot at Palestinians. He even called for Arab politicians to be expelled from the Israeli political scene. His extremist policies have even triggered the criticism of the fellow Israeli politicians who argue his actions provoke the Palestinians.
