by Oui
Wed Mar 24th, 2021 at 09:58:33 AM EST
Sign of the times in Israel when a member of a terrorist designated group enters the Knesset to join forces with a corrupt Bibi Netanyahu to keep him out of prison.
At first I put up a few posts, not expecting a different election return than the other three in the last 2-3 years with Bibi Netanyahu crowned as new Prime Minister of an extreme rightwing Jewish State in the Middle East, the cradle of Religious turmoil and turf wars. I understand from following the election news on i24 channel in English, the hatred within the State of Israel between tribes and countries of origin are far worse than we can imagine in a calm EU-27 by comparison.
Elections give rise to extremist party in Knesset | Ynet News |
An alliance of far-right groups including openly racist and homophobic candidates appears poised to enter Israel's parliament, possibly as an indispensable member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition, according to exit polls Tuesday.
The Religious Zionist Party includes a new incarnation of the Kahanist movement, a Jewish extremist group outlawed as terrorists by Israel, the United States and other Western countries decades ago over its incitement to violence against Arabs.
Its rise heralds a further shift to the right in Israel, where parties that support Jewish settlements and oppose the creation of a Palestinian state already dominate the political scene. A solidly right-wing government would likely find itself on a collision course with U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, which has pressed for the revival of peace efforts.
The Religious Zionist Party is led by Bezalel Smotrich, a longtime activist and former transport minister who has organized anti-gay protests and recently compared gay marriage to incest. In 2016, he tweeted in support of segregating Jewish and Arab women in maternity wards.
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He is allied with Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the far-right Jewish Power party. He is a disciple of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who incited violence against Arabs, called for Israel to be governed by Jewish religious law and advocated the expulsion of Arabs and other non-Jews from Israel and the occupied territories. Joining them is the openly homophobic Noam faction.
The Islamist Ra'am party currently has 3.24% of the total vote, just a hair under the 3.25% of votes needed to enter the Knesset.
Stalemate Continues No Clear Majority
Netanyahu's 'victory'; updated polls show majority slipping from reach
As the night wore on it appeared that Netanyahu's claim of victory may have come too soon.
All three channels updated their exit poll results to correlate with actual results coming in and showed Netanyahu losing his possible majority.
An updated exit poll from Channel 12 news had Likud dropping to 30 seats, with Netanyahu's bloc together with Yamina falling to 59 seats. The centrist Yesh Atid held steady as the second-largest party with 18 seats.
Lapid: Change for a Sane Government
Three months ago we overthrew the government and went to this polls. We were then the fourth largest party in Israel, we end this election campaign the second largest party in Israel leading the bloc of change.
Israel Election Too Close to Call
Ra'am party clears electoral threshold, shaking up Knesset's likely set-up | I24 News |
In the latest release, the Ra'am party, a breakaway Joint List faction, cleared the electoral threshold, claiming five seats as of now.
Its addition to the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) appears set to re-shuffle the current political disposition and deny the PM a clear path to a 61-vote majority.
Together with Shas, United Torah Judaism and the Religious Zionism parties, sitting at nine, seven and six seats respectively. Netanyahu's bloc is now at 52 seats -- not enough to form a 61-mandate majority with Naftali Bennett's Yamina, which currently has seven mandates.
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The anti-Netanyahu bloc, assuming that Lapid would be able to bring together a broad coalition, now sits at 56 seats and would hypothetically be able to form a government by joining forces with either Ra'am or Yamina.
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