WITH OVER 90% VOTES COUNTED, NETANYAHU SET FOR RETURN TO POWER WITH FAR-RIGHT HELP

Thu 03 November 2022:

The appointment of Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel’s next prime minister is mere inches away. According to the results of the vote count on Thursday, he has a practically insurmountable lead against Prime Minister Yair Lapid.

According to the Central Elections Committee, more than 90% of the votes have been counted, and the results favor Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition in the nation’s sixth election in four years.

It is possible that the coalition of his Likud party, its ultra-Orthodox Jewish supporters, and Religious Zionism would result in the most right-wing administration in Israeli history. While the final votes were being tallied, the Netanyahu-supporting group held 65 seats.

According to reports, the US State Department is worried about the possibility of having far-right ministers in a potential coalition administration.

Meanwhile, Lapid has not conceded defeat yet and has asked everyone to wait until all votes were counted to reach a conclusion.

Netanyahu’s margin of victory is likely to witness a slight change if the left-wing Meretz party manages to secure a minimum of four parliament seats, which it looks set to achieve. Whenever Netanyahu’s victory is confirmed, he will be given 42 days by President Isaac Herzog to form a government.

Local media reports suggest that Netanyahu has already started talking to coalition parties about how the government should look like. He will need to hand out Cabinet roles and co-leaders of far-right Religious Zionism, expected to win 14 seats, are likely to end up with prominent roles.

Itamar Ben-Gvir has expressed interest in becoming the minister of public security, which would put him in charge of the police. Ben-Gvir, who advocates for Israel’s annexation of the whole West Bank, is well known for his anti-Arab vitriol. In order to quell Palestinian protests, he has been advising security personnel to use more force.

Ben-Gvir had stated on election night that “It’s time we go back to being masters of our country.”

The previous few weeks have seen an increase in violence throughout the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, which Israel has annexed. An Israeli police officer was stabbed on Thursday in Jerusalem’s Old City before the attacker was fatally shot, according to the police.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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