Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared well-placed to return to power after exit polls after Tuesday’s election showed his right-wing bloc heading for a narrow majority, boosted by strong performances from its far-right allies. Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, who is on trial on corruption charges he denies, was on course to take 61-62 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, according to Israeli television exit polls. Caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s centrist Yesh Atid party was on track for its expected second place, with forecasts giving it between 22 and 24 seats. Early exit polls may differ from the final election result, which is not expected later in the week. But the results showed a stronger-than-expected showing of the right. “She looks like Bibi [Netanyahu] he is back after 16 months in the opposition, plotting his comeback,” Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith reported from West Jerusalem. “Benjamin Netanyahu seems to have made his political resurrection”. Israel’s fifth election in less than four years angered many Israeli voters. The campaign was rocked by right-wing gunner Itamar Ben-Gvir and the ultra-nationalist Religious Zionism bloc, now poised to be the third largest party with 15 seats in parliament. Road safety and rising prices topped the list of voters’ concerns in a campaign fueled by distance from Lapid’s unlikely governing coalition of right-wing, liberal and Palestinian parties. But the policy issues have been overshadowed by the outsized personality of Netanyahu, whose legal battles have fueled the impasse that has dogged Israel’s political system since he was indicted on bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges in 2019. Netanyahu, 73, relied on the support of Ben-Gvir and fellow far-right leader Bezalel Smotrich. The prospect of Ben-Gvir, a former member of Kach, a group on Israel and the United States’ “terrorist” watchlists, joining a coalition risks alarming allies, including Washington. Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who last week visited US President Joe Biden at the White House and emphasized Israel’s strong ties to the US, on Monday called on American Jewish leaders to respect the election results. “You may or may not like the results, but the vote of the Israeli people should be respected,” Herzog said during a speech to the Jewish Federations of North America, Israeli media reported, in an apparent reference to the rise – right-wing parties. Israel’s election campaign, which began weeks after a brief conflict with the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza in August, also unfolded against a backdrop of rising violence in the occupied West Bank, with near-daily raids by the Israeli army. Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said a coalition government led by Netanyahu “will ensure that there is no peace process with the Palestinians at all.” “And there will be no two-state solution and there will be no withdrawal from the occupied territories,” Bisara said. He added that many right-wing Israeli politicians had previously served in previous Netanyahu governments. “So what we have today is that this accused prime minister has basically [given] birth of all these right-wing, populist parties that now rule in Israel,” Bishara said.
