TEL AVIV – Veteran hawk Benjamin Netanyahu launched negotiations Friday with his ultra-Orthodox and far-right allies on forming what could be the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, raising concerns at home and abroad.
Netanyahu’s Likud party won 32 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament, the Knesset, according to the latest official results of the election released onThursday night.
That combined with 18 for two ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties and 14 for the rising extreme-right alliance called Religious Zionism gave the right-wing bloc supporting Netanyahu 64 seats, AFP reported.
The centrist bloc of outgoing caretaker prime minister Yair Lapid won 51 seats, marking a definitive win for Netanyahu and an end to Israel’s unprecedented era of political deadlock, which forced five elections in less than four years.
That will likely mean prominent roles for the co-leaders of far-right Religious Zionism, which doubled its representation at Tuesday’s election.
“Where are they headed?” said the headline of the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper with pictures of Netanyahu and Itamar Ben-Gvir, an extreme-right figure who looks set to be a major player in the new administration.
“It’s going to be an unprecedented government,” columnist Sima Kadmon wrote in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily.
“Most of the important portfolios will be in the hands of fanatics… everybody knows that if only a fraction of what the new government promised to do is carried out, this is going to be a different country with a different system of government,” she added.
The election result came amid the backdrop of soaring violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel army said its fighter jets early Friday targeted a rocket manufacturing site in the blockaded Gaza Strip, in response to several rockets fired towards Israel.
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