Yesh Atid, the party of Netanyahu’s main rival, interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid, appears poised to win just 24 seats, according to polls. only 55 seats. Two key parties emerged as if they did not cross the electoral threshold.
The final results of what may be the country’s most decisive election to date, ending an endless cycle of elections, will not be known until at least the next few hours and days, if not weeks, if the votes are contested. Moreover, if one of the parties on the electoral threshold manages to break through, the final numbers can be dramatically replaced.
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“Netanyahu will be the next minister,” Aviv Bushinsky, a political commentator and former Netanyahu chief of staff, told Fox News Digital after the polls were published on local broadcasts.
“For a long time, it was not clear, and we were moving from one election to the next, but while the last government was creative, it was unstable,” he said, adding that the effects, if accurate, show that the public felt this lack of stability and not satisfied with the inclusion of an Arab party in the composition of the outgoing government.
Although, he warned, “if Arab parties cross the threshold, then the total political map may change. “
Assaf Shapira, director of the Israel Democracy Institute’s political reform program, also told Fox News Digital that “we’ll have to wait for the final effects to see if this is accurate. “
“All election polls expect between 61 and 62 seats for the pro-Netanyahu political bloc, which was expected,” he said, adding, however, that past election polls in 2021 also gave Netanyahu between 61 and 62 seats, however, he lost one. A small Arab party that has eventually become decisive for the other factions to unite and oust Netanyahu from power.
“It may be that the polls do not know how to deal with the Arab public and perceive less the trends in this sector,” he said.
NETANYAHU’S PLOTS RETURN AS ISRAELIS VOTE FOR NEW GOVERNMENT
According to polls that preceded Tuesday’s vote, the Arab public, which makes up about 20 percent of Israel’s population, had hoped to stay away from polling stations, and it’s not yet clear if that happened. Israel’s Central Election Commission said overall voter turnout was the highest on record since the 1999 election, a vote in which Netanyahu, in his first circular as prime minister, was defeated by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
While Israel’s parliamentary formula means that no political party can win an election, the largest party has the first chance to form a coalition with other factions. It’s a confusing puzzle of small parties aligning with similar ideologies. mainly in relation to the confrontation with the Palestinians.
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However, during the more than 4 years of political vacuum, alliances have also been forged over whether Netanyahu, who in July 2019 became the longest-serving prime minister, leads the country.
Netanyahu is recently embroiled in a high-profile thieves trial on allegations of fraud, bribery and breach of trust. It is those accusations, which come with activities involving lavish gifts and high-risk industrial deals with millionaires and national infrastructure companies, that forced the former prime minister to call elections for the first time in December 2018.
By dismantling his government 4 years ago, Netanyahu expected a decisive election result that would reinforce his own and it would turn out that, despite fraudulent investigations, he was still enjoyed by an unwavering audience. However, after an election in April 2019, he was unable to form a government, as his main allies and political partners would not forget about his legal troubles. Netanyahu was forced to call elections at an unprecedented time five months later.
The September 2019 vote also failed to produce a transparent winner or transparent path for Netanyahu, or any other political leader, to identify a government and country forced to hold a third election in March 2020, resulting in a short-lived coalition with the existing Defense. . Minister Benny Gantz.
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This fragile alliance lasted less than a year before the fourth election was held in March 2021, with Netanyahu’s rivals, adding for the first time an Arab-Israeli political party, and even his best friend ousted him from power. Naftali Bennett, Netanyahu’s former best friend, became prime minister, with Lapid first serving as interim prime minister. But internal disagreements, basically the best friend over the basic ideological differences between the 8 factions, led to the fall of this government in June. Tuesday’s vote is unlikely. back this time.
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