Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is widely expected to win a record fifth term following Tuesday’s Knesset election. His Likud Party is set to finish with a similar number of seats – 35 – as the centrist Blue and White alliance, led by former military chief Benny Gantz.
Likud could form the largest right-wing bloc in the Knesset to create a simple majority in the 120-seat chamber, making Netanyahu Israel’s longest-serving prime minister in the process.
Sputnik discussed the election in Israel with Henrique Cymerman, an Israeli journalist of Portuguese and Spanish origin and author of the book « Voices from the Centre of the World: The Arab-Israeli Conflict told by its Protagonists », and Labour party member.
Benjamin Netanyahu will be the prime minister [for the] fifth government and soon he will be more prime minister for even more years than the founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion. So it is quite a personal success for him. I think he proved he is the best campaigner in Israel and he managed his campaign alone.
And he did have all kinds of indictments against him being accused of corruption. But anyway, I think the right-wing in Israel was reinforced, not only Likud [but] also the religious parties, and that’s how I believe that he will have a bloc of 65 among the 120 members of the Knesset that will support his government.
