Netanyahu set for a comeback after wafer-thin election victory
Former Israeli prime minister heading for four-seat majority in parliament
Benjamin Netanyahu was on the verge of a remarkable political comeback on Tuesday after he recorded a wafer-thin victory in Israel’s fifth parliamentary election in less than four years.
As voting closed, TV network projections and exit polls showed the former prime minister’s political bloc likely to win 62 seats in the 120-member Knesset — a majority of four.
Netanyahu, 73, who is on trial for corruption and breach of trust, warned earlier that the race was “a very, very close battle” as he rallied supporters of his right-wing Likud party in the central city of Netanya.
Caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid, 58, whose centrist Yesh Atid party came second behind Likud, urged people to vote in the “very close” contest.
Netanyahu is expected to try to form a coalition government with the help of anti-Arab extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose Religious Zionism group benefited from a surge in voting for the far right and was poised to be the third-largest party with 15 seats in the Knesset.
Ben-Gvir, who wants Israel to annex the entire West Bank, promised a “full right-wing government” led by Netanyahu after voting near his home in an illegal settlement next to Hebron.
Justice Minister Gideon Saar, a former Likud party heavyweight who broke with Netanyahu and now leads his own party, warned
Israel risked electing a “coalition of extremists.”
Security on the streets and surging prices topped the list of voter concerns in a campaign triggered by defections from Lapid’s unlikely ruling coalition of right-wing, liberal and Arab parties.
But policy issues have been overshadowed by the outsized personality of Netanyahu, whose legal battles have fed the stalemate blocking Israel’s political system since he was indicted on bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges in 2019.
Tuesday’s election took place against a backdrop of soaring violence across Israeli-annexed East
Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, with at least 29 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military in October.
Security forces shut checkpoints leading to the West Bank and closed the crossing with the blockaded Gaza Strip throughout election day.
At a polling station in Tel Aviv, voter Amy Segal, 26, aired her frustration at being asked to vote yet again after years of deadlock.
“Each year there’s a new election, there’s no political stability,” she said. “I feel like it doesn’t matter who you vote for, nothing will change.”