Netanyahu set for comeback, says he is on brink of big election win

JERUSALEM - Israel’s former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to return to power in one of the most right-wing coalitions in Israel’s history, causing jitters among Palestinians and Arab neighbours who fear it could ratchet up tensions across the Middle East.

With roughly 70 per cent of votes counted, Netanyahu’s conservative Likud and its likely religious and far-right allies were on pace to control a majority in Parliament after Israel’s fifth election in less than four years.

“We have won a huge vote of confidence from the people of Israel,” a smiling Netanyahu, on trial for corruption charges he denies, told cheering supporters at his Likud party election headquarters. “We are on the brink of a very big victory.”

His voice hoarse from weeks of campaigning across the country, he vowed to form a stable, national government, as the crowd interrupted him singing “Bibi, king of Israel”.

Lifted by a strong showing from his far-right and religious allies, Netanyahu, was on course for a comeback, according to Israeli television exit polls late on Tuesday.

They predicted his bloc of four parties would take 62 of the Knesset’s 120 seats.

Less than 18 months out of office, Netanyahu said he would wait for the actual vote count, with final results expected in the coming days. The landscape could shift as the remaining ballot count trickles in.

Netanyahu’s alliance with far-right firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose Religious Zionism bloc is on course to become the third-largest party, has alarmed Palestinians and drawn concern among some allies, including the United States.

The former prime minister’s expected win will dismay Palestinians and some Arab states, not least because his right-wing government is likely to expand Israeli settler activity on the West Bank, but his hard line on Iran also means Israel’s recently struck Gulf Arab alliances should hold firm.

“No doubt the result of such a coalition will increase the hostile attitude towards the Palestinian people and make occupation measures more extreme” Mr Bassam Salhe, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, told Reuters.

Mr Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the Islamist Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip, told Reuters: “It is clear that the Israelis are leaning towards more extremism, which also means aggression against our people would increase.”

The record 12-year consecutive reign of Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, ended in June 2021 when centrist Yair Lapid managed to stitch together an unlikely coalition government of liberals, rightists and Arab parties. But the fragile alliance unravelled a year into its rule.

As actual results began trickling in, Mr Lapid stopped short of conceding the election and said he would wait until the final count. Exit polls late on Tuesday predicted his camp would take 53 to 54 Knesset seats, far behind Netanyahu.

“The people want a different way. They want security,” Netanyahu said. “They want power, not weakness…” AFP, REUTERS