Israel’s political deadlock is set to continue after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rivals failed to make decisive gains in the latest national election, according to official results from Israel’s election commission.
With no clear winner in Tuesday’s election, the two main blocs are now scrambling to win more support in the 120-seat Knesset.
The immediate challenge will be for Mr Netanyahu or one of his rivals to secure the mandate from President Reuven Rivlin to try to form a government.
Mr Netanyahu’s political skills, honed over the course of a career that saw him become Israel’s longest-serving leader, have helped him negotiate similar obstacles in the past and he may still find a way to regain the premiership after Israel’s fourth election in two years although he faces fierce opposition.
Indeed, Tuesday’s vote saw Mr Netanyahu face a range of challengers hoping to remove him from office, running from the centrist politicians to former right-wing allies who believe that Mr Netanyahu has been in office too long.
Mr Netanyahu, in contrast, pitched himself as an experienced leader who managed to sign breakthrough diplomatic agreements with several Arab states in recent months, and as the architect of Israel’s successful, world-leading rollout of Covid-19 vaccines. Nearly 60 per cent of Israel’s nine million people have now received at least one dose and Mr Netanyahu used “Getting Back to Life” as his centrepiece slogan in campaign stops and banners.
Read the article by Felicia Schwartz and Dov Lieber in The Australian.