According to the still incomplete results, Netanyahu’s Likud party is winning the parliamentary elections together with its far-right and extreme religious allies. Accused of corruption, Netanyahu would return to power only after a break of more than a year.
Cries of “Bibi is coming back”, “Bibi is king” rang out among the Likud party’s election monitors on Wednesday night, when the door-to-door polls for Israel’s parliamentary elections were announced.
The joy ended when it turned out that the former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “Bibi”, according to door-to-door polls and partial election results, seems to be returning to power after a break of more than a year. According to preliminary data, Likud and its likely allies, religious and far-right parties are getting about 65 of the 120 seats in the Knesset.
The 12-year continuous reign of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister ended in July 2021, when a government supported by liberal, right-wing and Arab parties came to power. From the center By Yair Lapid however, the government led by him began to fall apart after only being in power for a year.
However, this is not unusual in modern Israel: The recent elections were the fifth in four years.
Corruption accusations overshadow a career
Both Lapid and Netanyahu have said they are still waiting for the final election results. This did not prevent Netanyahu from already declaring that Likud has received a strong vote of confidence.
Confidence in Netanyahu has been shaken by, among other things, the ongoing corruption trial against him. According to the charges filed three years ago, Netanyahu favored an Israeli telecommunications company in exchange for the company’s news page writing favorably about him.
In addition, Netanyahu is suspected of taking gifts worth hundreds of thousands of euros from his wealthy friends. Netanyahu denies the charges.
According to the Likud leader’s supporters Netanyahu has been framed as guilty. (you switch to another service) Opponents say corruption makes him unfit to lead the country.
I am in power with the support of the extreme right
Dissertation researcher Antti Tarvainen The University of Helsinki estimates that the reason behind Netanyahu’s popularity is that he is a strong leader, skilled in foreign policy and a charismatic speaker, and adept at playing coalitions against each other and for his own side.
– Now he would pull the far-right religious-Zionist coalition over to his side, Tarvainen said on Radio 1’s Ykkössaamu.
One likely partner for Likud is of Itamar Ben-Gvir led by the religious Zionist party, which was the biggest winner of these elections. It is becoming the third largest in the Knesset after Likud and the centrist Yesh Atid led by Lapid.
It is feared that Ben-Gvir’s ascension to the government will further strain the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians. Ben-Gvir, who dreams of becoming the Minister of Police, was once convicted of racist incitement against Arabs.
He would like to expel people disloyal to the state from the country and supports the death penalty.
Likud and the extreme right have also supported reforming the judiciary in such a way that its independence would be reduced and political control would be strengthened.
According to Tarvainen, the proposal stems from the desire for even tougher measures against the Palestinians.
Netanyahu’s opponents suspect that the aim of the reform would be to help Netanyahu avoid his own corruption charges, says, among other things The Times of Israel magazine. (you switch to another service)
Israel moved more and more to the right
Israel has been moving to the right for a long time, says a senior researcher Timo R. Stewart From the Foreign Policy Institute on Radio 1’s Ykkösaamu.
According to Stewart, this is reflected in the emphasis on security issues and Israel’s Jewish character.
For example, in 2018, a nationality law was enacted that defined Israel primarily as a Jewish state. However, a fifth of the country’s citizens are Arabs.
In addition, the establishment of settlements in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel has been the policy of the government. Various groups have taken the law into their own hands and built illegal settlements that are later legalized, Stewart said.
– The rhetoric has hardened all the time, Stewart states.