The suspense is over! Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has succeeded in his long-desired goal of obtaining a majority with his religious and far-right allies to once again tread the highest steps of power.
Despite his corruption trial, Netanyahu and his allies from the ultra-Orthodox parties and the far-right “Religious Zionism” list win 64 of the 120 seats in the Knesset (parliament), three more than the majority threshold , announced Thursday evening the electoral commission.
Shortly before, outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who had ousted Mr. Netanyahu from power last year by setting up a motley coalition (right, center, left, Arab) which has since imploded, contacted his rival to congratulate him. of this victory, at the end of the legislative elections on Tuesday.
“Prime Minister Lapid congratulated Mr. Netanyahu on his election victory and informed the leader of the opposition that he had given instructions to prepare for an orderly transition,” his spokesman said in a statement.
“The State of Israel is above all political considerations. I wish Netanyahu success, for the good of the people of Israel and the State of Israel,” Lapid said.
According to the electoral commission, the “right bloc” of Mr. Netanyahu obtains 64 elected – 32 for his party the Likud, 18 for the two orthodox parties and a record of 14 for the extreme right – in what could be, according to analysts, the most right-wing government in the country’s history.
Centrist Lapid’s Yesh Atid (“There is a future”) party won 24 seats, its center-right ally Benny Gantz 12 seats, followed by 10 seats for two other parties and five for the Arab Raam party, which had also supported his coalition, for a total of 51 deputies.
The Arab Hadash-Taal party won 5 deputies.
By 4000 votes?
In the Israeli proportional system, the parties must obtain 3.25% of the vote to enter Parliament, a minimum rate giving them de facto four deputies.
However, two small parties hostile to Mr. Netanyahu’s camp, the left-wing formation Meretz and the Arab party Balad, garnered 3.16% and 2.90% support respectively.
For Meretz, who was part of Mr. Lapid’s coalition and whose four elected officials could have helped to deprive Mr. Netanyahu of a majority, the fate is all the more cruel as the formation missed the target of 3.25 % by almost 4000 votes.
“The election results are a disaster for Meretz, for the country and personally,” acknowledged party leader Zehava Galon. “Humanist values do not disappear because of 3800 votes […] we will continue our fight and in the end we will win it,” she added.
In order to avoid this scenario, Meretz had asked the Labor Party (left) before the elections to form an alliance in order to ensure that they crossed the threshold together. In vain.
Ditto for two Arab parties – Hadash/Taal and Balad – which decided at the last minute not to run on the same electoral list, depriving the anti-Netanyahu camp of many seats altogether.
Security and negotiations
Nicknamed “Bibi”, Mr. Netanyahu had not left political life as his opponents wanted but had clung to the post of leader of the opposition with the objective of returning to business to possibly vote for immunity by the deputies and annul his trial for corruption.
Over the next few days, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose office is essentially symbolic, will have to officially mandate Mr. Netanyahu to form a government. The latter will then have 42 days to distribute the ministerial portfolios.
But according to the Israeli press, the Netanyahu camp did not wait for this formal green light, the former Prime Minister having mandated Yariv Levin, one of his relatives, to start talks which could be complicated, with the formation ” Religious Zionism” in particular.
The leader of this party, Bezalel Smotrich, has indicated that he wants the Ministry of Defense, and the number two Itamar Ben Gvir, that of Public Security, two key positions at the forefront of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which knows its violence the largest in seven years.
On Thursday, four Palestinians – including an assailant, a fighter, but also a teenager – were killed by Israeli forces in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“It’s time to bring security to the streets, to restore order, to show who is in charge, it’s time to kill a terrorist who is carrying out an attack,” said far-right tenor Itamar Ben Gvir .
The appointments of Messrs. Smotrich and Ben Gvir in sensitive security positions could be “embarrassing on the international scene” for Benjamin Netanyahu, believes Palestinian analyst Khaldoun Barghouti.
Without wanting to “speculate on a government”, Washington said it hoped that “all Israeli leaders will continue to share the values of an open, democratic society that promotes tolerance and respect for all civil society, especially minority groups”. .