Israeli PM congratulates Netanyahu on election victory

Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid has congratulated Benjamin Netanyahu on his election victory as the former premier won a clear parliamentary majority, boosted by ultranationalist and religious parties.

Netanyahu’s victory is set to end an unprecedented stalemate in Israel after five elections in less than four years.

Tuesday’s ballot saw out the centrist Lapid, and his rare alliance of conservatives, liberals and Arab politicians.

With the conflict with Palestinians surging anew and touching off Jewish-Arab tensions within Israel, Netanyahu’s rightist Likud and kindred parties took 64 of the Knesset’s 120 seats.

Netanyahu still has to be officially tasked by the president with forming a government, a process that could take weeks.

“The time has come to impose order here. The time has come for there to be a landlord,” tweeted Itamar Ben-Gvir of the far-right Religious Zionism party, Likud’s likely senior partner.

Ben-Gvir – a West Bank settler and former member of Kach, a Jewish militant group on Israeli and U.S. terrorist watchlists – wants to become police minister.

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Israeli media, citing political sources, said the new government may be clinched by mid-month.

Previous coalitions in recent years have had narrower parliamentary majorities that made them vulnerable to no-confidence motions.

With coalition building talks yet to officially begin, it was still unclear what position Ben-Gvir might hold in a future government.

Since the election, both he and Netanyahu have pledged to serve all citizens.

While Washington has publicly reserved judgment pending the new Israeli coalition’s formation, a U.S. State Department spokesman on Wednesday emphasised the countries’ “shared values“.

“We hope that all Israeli government officials will continue to share the values of an open, democratic society, including tolerance and respect for all in civil society, particularly for minority groups,” the spokesperson said.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides said he spoke with Netanyahu and told him he looked forward to “working together to maintain the unbreakable bond.”

Zainab Sa’id