Relegated to the role of opposition leader for more than a year, Netanyahu, who is also embroiled in a trial for breach of trust, bribery and fraud, has the most debatable factor in the country’s 74-year history.
Fierce debates and even altercations over whether he would be allowed to serve as prime minister, even as it appears in court, triggered the first election; It is also what has prevented a new government from being formed and proceeding since then.
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But, love him or hate him, and Israelis seem pretty divided on this, Netanyahu is fighting vigorously to return to force and, according to the most recent polls, there’s a small chance he could do it this time.
“Whoever answers yes or no to the question of whether Netanyahu can return is someone you prevent from listening to. And there’s no greater evidence than the fact that we’re going to a fifth election in three and a half years,” Reuven Hazan, a political science professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
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“If we knew in advance exactly where we were going, we would have done it after the first or moment back, even the third. We don’t want five elections, and the explanation for why we’re in five is because we’re not doing them. “I don’t know,” he said. Every ballot shows that it all comes down to thread. “
A ballot released Friday, among the last votes held before election day, via Israel’s 12th highest-rated news program, shows Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party winning 31 seats in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset and the bloc of parties that have committed to the modelling prime minister. which receives only 60. This still makes it a seat below what you want to form a strong coalition.
The Yesh Atid party, led by interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid, according to polls, will have just 25 seats, and the bloc of parties that could potentially align with him in his opposition to Netanyahu’s return to strength has just 56. List, a predominantly Arab party that also opposes Netanyahu’s return, is expected to win four seats but no government.
“In other words, there are 120 members in the Israeli parliament, and to form a government because it’s a parliamentary system, not a presidential democracy, like in the United States, you want a majority of at least 61 seats, and he [Netanyahu] doesn’t have it yet,” Hazan said. “In the most productive survey, she’s 60 years old, so she’s not over until the fat girl sings, and she’ll sing on Tuesday night. “
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While maximum elections around the world feature an organization of insecure voters somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum, in Israel, voting happens to have those whose critics lie somewhere on the margins.
On the far right of Israel’s political spectrum is the party of devout Zionism, a conglomeration of what some claim to be extremists, once unwelcome agitators who tried to cover up their act to break into the Israeli parliament. They engaged with Netanyahu and Bibi, much to the chagrin of some Western governments and Jewish communities around the world.
The party, led by Bezalel Smotrich, a former shipping minister in Netanyahu’s previous government, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, a corrupt lawyer and disciple of the American rabbi and Knesset member Meir Kahana, who was killed by a terrorist in New York in 1990, are ambitious in their prospects for the country’s Arab population and have announced plans to reform the country’s judicial system. those they call corrupt, biased and too powerful.
The latest polls show them winning as many as 14 seats in Israel’s parliament, making them the third-largest faction and the potential kingmakers who could confer Netanyahu’s crown as prime minister.
On the far left of Israel’s political map are 3 Arab parties, which may be equally decisive in Netanyahu’s victory or defeat. He left them arguing and running in this round.
According to polls, the party looms over the electoral threshold, and a defeated and discouraged Arab public (about 20% of Israel’s population) is more apathetic than ever towards Israeli politics. The failure of one of those parties, as well as 3 other small parties, to discharge the required 3. 25% of the vote can radically replace the final results of the election.
Dr. Gadi Taub, a political commentator and professor of U. S. history. A U. S. citizen at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he told Fox News Digital that Netanyahu “definitely has an advantage” this time, but stressed, “There are still a lot of variables that make it very difficult to predict. “
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The option of small parties, adding a right-wing party on the political spectrum, falling below the electoral threshold, he said, “replaces the scenario only of the parties, but also of the distribution of votes among the other parties” that can radically replace the result.
“That said, it turns out that Netanyahu has a good chance, if he gets only 61 (seats) in his coalition, it will be a volatile government, and many of his constituents hope that this time the right will not bow. to the liberal deep state,” said Taub, who also writes a column for the Israeli daily Haaretz.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Netanyahu said he was running hard to get back to power and “I think there’s a very smart chance that we will win this time because other people noticed the difference. “
“They set up another government that made an alliance, this will surprise you, with the Muslim Brotherhood, and they are part of the existing coalition that collapsed,” he said, adding that it is “unfathomable because those other people do not recognize the Jewish state. . . and I think many in Israel need to see a return to a government that is committed to Israel as a Jewish state, to repair a tough economy, a tough army, and security for all Israelis.
It remains to be seen whether Netanyahu will succeed, however, the leaders in the U. S. The U. S. and around the world, as well as many Jewish communities, are closely watching the Israeli elections, wondering whether the former leader’s return to force will also mean strengthening far-right incendiary forces. elements such as Smotrich and Ben-Gvir.
Asked via Fox if he would come permanently with his party in a long-term government, even if that would strain relations with the Biden administration, which has already expressed fear about it, Netanyahu called those fears “ridiculous” and “hypocrisy. “
“I mean, I’ve had parties to my right, adding parties of the same belief, and they didn’t do politics,” he said. “For God’s sake, we are the biggest party, I am the prime minister and we do politics.
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“I asked the other people who asked me that question. I said, ‘Where are you when the existing government has formed a coalition with the Muslim Brotherhood that needs to see Israel disappear and doesn’t settle for America as it is?existing form??'”
Tal Schneider, political correspondent for The Times of Israel, said Netanyahu’s goal of presenting debatable figures in a long-term conceivable coalition deserves to make “anyone who cares about democracy” pay close attention to events in Israel.
Ruth Marks Eglash is a veteran journalist based in Jerusalem, Israel. He reports for Fox News Digital and covers the Middle East and Europe. Originally from the UK, she has also worked as a freelancer for media outlets adding Huffington Post, USA Today and Christian Science Monitor. Ruth can be followed on Twitter @reglash