Benjamin Netanyahu, who led the legislative elections in Israel along with his far-right allies, will officially receive the mandate to form a government this Sunday, a victory for the former prime minister who has promised to return to office.
Source: AFP
This week, the majority of deputies, 64 of the 120 members of the Parliament elected on November 1, recommended to President Isaac Herzog to grant Netanyahu the mandate to form a government.
His main rival, the outgoing prime minister, the centrist Yair Lapid, obtained 28 supports.
It was precisely Lapid who, in June 2021, removed Netanyahu from power, with a very disparate coalition of right, center, left and Arab parties, coming together to end the reign of the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history. , in office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021.
Netanyahu is indicted for corruption in a series of cases and his trial is ongoing.
After his failure in the March 2021 legislative elections, Netanyahu, known as “Bibi” and relegated to opposition leader, promised to “overthrow the government as soon as the first opportunity arose.”
– The most to the right –
The leader of the right-wing Likud party will have 28 days to form his cabinet, but can be given an additional 14 days if necessary.
After the announcement of the results of the November 1 elections, the fifth in three and a half years, Netanyahu entered into discussions with his allies to divvy up ministerial portfolios.
Likud won 32 seats in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), its ultra-Orthodox allies 18 and the religious Zionism alliance 14, a record for the far right. This combination suggests that this government could be the most to the right in the history of the country.
Among the ultra-Orthodox, the head of the Sephardic Shass party, Arieh Dery, supported by his 11 seats, would want Finance or the Interior, according to the press. Dery was found guilty of fraud in 2021 and was previously jailed for corruption.
Religious Zionism wants the Ministry of Defense for its boss, Betzalel Smotrich, while number two, Itamar Ben Gvir, would like the Interior Security portfolio.
– “Without dreams” –
According to the Israeli press, President Herzog, whose role is symbolic, would have tried to convince Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s rivals, to form a union government with him to prevent controversial figures such as Ben Gvir.
The president denied this information.
But during his interview with this far-right leader on Thursday, Herzog told him he received “interrogations from Israeli citizens and world leaders … on sensitive human rights issues.”
“There is a certain image of you and your party that seems, and I tell you this in all honesty, worrying in many ways,” Herzog told MP Ben Gvir, known for his anti-Arab diatribes.
After the last elections in Israel, several Western countries, including the United States, called for “tolerance” and respect for “minority groups.”
On the Palestinian side, the results were viewed with fatalism. Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh stated that he “had no illusions that the Israeli elections would lead to a partnership for peace.”
