Jerusalem: Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared well-prepared for a return to power as exit polls after Tuesday’s election showed his right-wing faction led to a narrow majority by a strong showing from his far-right allies. Israel’s longest-serving premier was set to take a narrow majority of 61 or 62 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, according to Israeli television exit polls, in trial for corruption charges, which he denied.
“It’s a good start,” Netanyahu, 73, said in a video broadcast by Israeli public broadcaster Cannes 11, but added that exit polls were not the real count.
The final result is not expected until the end of the week, and immediately sparked controversy with warnings of possible attempts by Netanyahu’s Likud party to falsify the results.
Israel’s fifth election in less than four years angered many voters, but the turnout was recorded at its highest level since 2015.
The campaign was rocked by West Bank settler Itamar Ben-Gavir and his ultra-nationalist religious Zionism list, which is now poised to become the third largest party in parliament after rising from the political margins.
“The time has come for us to go back to being in charge of our country!” Ben-Gavir called on hundreds of ardent supporters in a speech punctuated by chants of “death to the terrorists”.
Netanyahu’s 12-year rule came to an end in June 2021, when centrist Yair Lapid and his coalition partner Naftali Bennett managed to stitch together a coalition comprising an Arab party for the first time.
Safety on the streets and rising prices have topped the list of voter concerns in a campaign triggered by Prime Minister Lapid’s defection from a potentially ruling coalition of right-wing, liberal and Arab parties.
The campaign was dominated by the outside personality of Netanyahu, whose legal battle has fed the impasse that has stymied Israel’s political system since he was charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in 2019.
According to the polls, Lapid’s camp was set to capture 54–55 seats, with his There Is A Future party coming in as the second largest in parliament.
Speaking to supporters at his party headquarters, Lapid stopped accepting the election and said he would wait until the final results were out.
“We have no intention of stopping,” Lapid said. “We will continue to fight for Israel to be a Jewish and democratic, liberal and progressive state.”
He campaigned on his leadership of the economy as well as diplomatic progress with countries including Lebanon and Turkey. But withholding the right was not enough.
However, the result left Netanyahu with the support of Ben-Gavir and fellow far-right leader Bezel Smotrich, who controlled some extreme anti-Arab positions, but still expelled anyone deemed treacherous to Israel. called upon to do so.
The prospect of a government including Ben-Gavir, a former member of Kach, a group on the Israeli and US terrorist watch list, and which was once convicted of racist provocation, puts at risk allies, including Washington.
It also reinforced Palestinian suspicions that a political solution to the conflict was likely after a campaign that went unchecked against a backdrop of escalating violence in the occupied West Bank, with almost daily raids and skirmishes.
“The election results proved that we already know we have no peace mates in Israel,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Shtayyeh said in a statement.
The result could be influenced by whether a smaller Arab party, Balad, crosses the threshold to enter parliament, which could shake up the distribution of seats and potentially thwart Netanyahu.
The Central Election Committee said it had found no indication of any manipulation and said that the rumours of alleged fraud have no basis.