The three elderly men smoked water pipes as they waited patiently to hear whether Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been prime minister longer than anyone in Israel but is now on trial for corruption, and Palestinian-hating hardliner Itamar Ben-Gvir would be the ones to they will form the next government of the country. The numbers were in, and the good news was that their list, Hadash-Ta’al, had passed the threshold to enter parliament, known as the Knesset, and would likely take four seats. But the tally gave Netanyahu’s bloc a majority, with an expected 61 or 62 of the 120 Knesset seats, enough to form a government. Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s centrist bloc was projected to get 54-55 seats. And anti-democratic, anti-liberal, anti-Palestinian, homophobic “religious Zionism,” whose leaders advocate undermining the Israeli justice system, creating loyalty tests for Palestinian citizens, and deporting those deemed “infidels,” looked set to become Netanyahu’s master. partner. The far-right group is projected to win at least 14 seats compared to six in the last election. “Extremism in this country is growing,” said Anwar Ghazal, 53, as he watched the display. “It is dangerous for the Arabs. That’s what we tried to explain throughout our campaign, they have to vote. Netanyahu is just as dangerous. The situation is not good. It is terrible.” Supporters of far-right Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir celebrate as exit polls show surge in support [Oren Ziv/AP Photos] “I’ve been waiting for this,” said Ihab Abukrubeia, 30, watching Ben-Gvir’s people dance on the television screen, waving Israeli flags as big as people. “I think the majority of Jews here are far-right. That’s why we have Likud and Ben-Gvir with so many seats.” Palestinians are not alone in their fear of Ben-Gvir and the changes he hopes to bring about. “If the results we see this afternoon stand, the coalition that will form the next government is poised to propose a series of reforms that will seek to politicize the judiciary and weaken the checks and balances that exist between the branches of government. and the service. as fundamental elements of Israeli democracy,” said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute. Their plans include removing the offense of fraud and breach of trust – for which Netanyahu is on trial – from the criminal code, stripping the Supreme Court of justice of striking down unconstitutional laws and giving MPs control over the selection of judges. “While some of these proposals appear to be aimed at removing former Prime Minister Netanyahu from his ongoing criminal trial, much more is at stake. If implemented, these proposals would threaten the independence of our judicial system and could expose Israel’s political system to systematic corruption.”
“Nothing is over”
Some Jewish-Israeli commentators blamed the result on Palestinian citizens of Israel for not voting. Palestinian turnout was lower than in the past, while Jewish turnout was higher than in the past. Election authorities said overall turnout was 66.3 percent at 8:00 p.m. local time (18:00 GMT), the highest since 1999. “What bothers me the most is this arrogance,” said Maha Al-Nakib, another activist at the Hadash office. “They blamed the Arabs for not coming out to vote. Why are we always responsible for the s**t — excuse my language — of the country? Why is the Israeli left not to blame? It’s chutzpah,” he said, using the Yiddish word for “cheeky.” The overall turnout was the highest since 1999, according to election authorities, although the number of Palestinians who turned out to vote was lower than before [Ammar Awad/Reuters] The situation could change, however, and exit polls have been wrong in the past. If the Balad party, another Palestinian group, manages to pass the threshold of 3.25 percent of the total vote, it would change the distribution of all votes. “Nothing is over” until all the votes are counted, Lapid told supporters at a post-election event. “Every Israeli should know tonight that we will continue to fight for Israel to be a Jewish and democratic state, liberal and advanced.” But if the exit polls are correct, it will be Netanyahu, once again, who will be able to form a government – one that could be more stable than any since 2019, the year Netanyahu was impeached . Election authorities are expected to complete the counting within the week.
