Copies of ballots papers and campaign posters for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party lie on the ground in the aftermath of the country’s parliamentary elections, early yesterday in Tel Aviv. Netanyahu beat the odds to win a resounding election victory that will likely deepen tensions with the Palestinians and the West.
Reuters/Jerusalem
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged yesterday to form a new governing coalition quickly after an upset election victory that was built on a shift to the right and is likely to worsen a troubled relationship with the White House.
In the final days of campaigning, Netanyahu abandoned a commitment to negotiate a Palestinian state - the basis of more than two decades of Middle East peacemaking - and promised to go on building settlements on occupied land. Such policies defy the core vision of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict embraced by President Barack Obama and his Republican and Democratic predecessors.
With nearly all votes counted, Netanyahu’s Likud had won 29 or 30 seats in the 120-member Knesset, comfortably defeating the centre-left Zionist Union opposition on 24 seats. A united list of Israeli Arab parties came third.
The result was a dramatic and unexpected victory for Netanyahu - the last opinion polls four days before the vote had shown Likud trailing the Zionist Union by four seats.
Although Netanyahu must still put together a coalition, his victory all but guarantees that Israel’s president will give him the first opportunity to form a government, putting him course to become the longest-serving leader in the country’s history.
“I am moved by the responsibility Israel has given me and I appreciate the decision by Israel’s citizens to elect me and my friends, against all odds and in the face of powerful forces,” Netanyahu said.
But the promises he made to ultranationalist voters in the final days of the campaign could have wide consequences, including deepening rifts with the US and Europe and potentially emboldening Palestinians to take unilateral steps towards statehood in the absence of any prospect of talks.
Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator in peace talks that collapsed last year, lamented “the success of a campaign based on settlements, racism, apartheid and the denial of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people”.
Likud said Netanyahu intended to form a new government within weeks, with negotiations already under way with the far-right pro-settler Jewish Home party led by Naftali Bennett, the centrist Kulanu party and ultra-Orthodox groups.
The critical party to get on side will be Kulanu, led by former Likud member and communications minister Moshe Kahlon, who won 10 seats, making him a kingmaker given his ability to side with either Netanyahu or the centre-left opposition.
Netanyahu’s deputies were already holding preliminary talks with potential coalition partners, Israeli media said.
President Reuven Rivlin said he would launch consultations with party leaders on Sunday to try and form a new government as soon as possible.
Isaac Herzog, leader of the Zionist Union, conceded defeat and congratulated Netanyahu. Herzog said he would not seek to join a Netanyahu-led government.
While Likud is the largest party, the process of forming a coalition could be challenging, with potential political partners certain to raise a variety of demands.
With the backing of right-wing and religious factions, and with Kahlon also on board, Netanyahu could end up with 67 parliamentary seats, a commanding majority.
If Netanyahu follows through on his pledges it would put him on a collision course with the Obama administration and the European Union, which has been weighing steps including trade measures to sanction Israel for its settlements policy.
The White House was already angry with him for addressing the US Congress at the invitation of Republican lawmakers in a bid to scupper US nuclear talks with Iran.
Obama was not quick to congratulate Netanyahu on his victory, and the White House said such a call would be made in the coming days.
But White House spokesman Josh Earnest was critical of some of Netanyahu’s comments in the final days of his campaign.
Earnest told reporters the administration would evaluate its approach on the Middle East peace process following Netanyahu’s statement that there would be no Palestinian state on his watch.
The White House was also deeply concerned at what it called the use of “divisive rhetoric”, when Netanyahu suggested left-wingers were bringing Israeli Arab voters to the polls “in droves” to sway the election against him, Earnest said.
Palestinians want world to put pressure on Israel
Reuters/Gaza
Palestinian leaders yesterday called for international pressure on Israel and support for their unilateral moves toward statehood after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s election win.
Netanyahu’s surprise victory, after pledging in the final days of the campaign that there would be no Palestinian state as long as he was in power, left Palestinians grim about prospects for a negotiated solution to a decades-old conflict.
“It is clear Israel has voted for burying the peace process, against the two-state choice and for the continuation of occupation and settlement,” Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator in talks with Israel that collapsed in April, told Voice of Palestine radio.
Seeking to shore up right-wing votes and saying that Islamist militants would move into any territory relinquished by Israel, Netanyahu also vowed to keep building settlements on occupied land Palestinians seek for a state.
Palestinian leaders said a fourth term for the Likud party leader meant they must press forward with unilateral steps toward independence, including filing charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court.
“This makes it more necessary than ever to go to the international community, and to go to the ICC and escalate peaceful resistance and boycott against the occupation,” Wasel Abu Youssef, a Palestine Liberation Organisation leader, told Reuters. The Palestinians are due to become ICC members on April 1.
Erekat called in a statement on the international community to back Palestinian efforts “to internationalise our struggle for dignity and freedom through the International Criminal Court and through all other peaceful means”.
Netanyahu’s stand against a Palestinian state had already threatened to strain ties with the US and Europe.
The parliaments of several European countries, including Britain and France, have called on their governments to recognise an independent state of Palestine in the past year, reflecting exasperation at continued settlement building on occupied land. Sweden formally recognised Palestine in October.
