Benjamin Netanyahu makes an unexpected come back as possible Prime Minister of Israel. He will lead a rigt-winged coalition.
With almost 90% of the votes counted, it seems like the next Israel’s Prime Minister will be Benjamin Netanyahu. If things stand until the final result, Netanyahu will lead the most right-winged government in Israel’s history. The Likud Party, led by Neanyahu, will form a coalition with Religious Zionism, the far-right party that gained popularity in the last years.
Benjamin Netanyahu was the longest serving Prime Minister in Israel. He occupied the post for 15 years, and consecutively for 12. He, however, was outed in 2018 because of corruption charges. Such charges stand to this day, and Netanyahu will have to face three different trials because of them.
Without him, however, Israel couldn’t seem to find any political stability. The Middle-Eastern country undertook five elections in four years, and every coalition was more unstable than the previous one.
Current Prime Minister Yair Lapid, despite trying to form the most inclusive government in the country’s history, never had a strong majority. In Israel, it’s almost impossible that a single party can retain an absolute majority in Parliament, therefore alliances and coalitions are the norm. It’s not a bizarre political system: countries like Germany and Italy have a similar layout. However, its major weakness is that if a single party inside the coalition decides to opt out, the entire government falls apart.
How will Netanyahu’s government look like
Right now, Netanyahu’s coalition will retain 65 out of 120 seats in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament. His government, however, will be formed by extremists and outsiders. If Yair Lapid’s government tried to include Arabs inside the Knesset for the first time, it is likely that Netanyahu will increase oppression against them.
Ben Gvir, one of the far-right leaders, has always vocally opposed any lenient policy towards Palestine and the Palestinian settlements. "We want to make a total separation between those who are loyal to the state of Israel - and we don’t have any problem with them - and those who undermine our dear country," he said.
In one of his most famous endeavors, he was seen holding a gun in a Palestinian neighborhood pledging the police to shoot at the residents. He is also openly against LGBTQ rights (Israel is the only country in the Middle-East where such rights are protected) and for increasing the police force.
His party received only 14% of the votes, but it is a sharp increase from the last few elections when they got only a handful of seats.
In general, these elections were held under an intense atmosphere, when a Palestinian terrorist crashed his car into an Israeli officer near a checkpoint. The officer is reported to be severely injured, while the driver died shortly after the accident.
The next Israeli government might bring much needed political stability into the country, as well as even more difficult times for the Palestinians.
