Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to rebuff international demands to allow a Palestinian state with a border based on the pre-1967 Green Line and its capital in East Jerusalem, as hardline pro-settler parties and factions are expected to make unprecedented gains in today’s election.
“When they say, ‘Go back to the ‘67 lines,’ I stand against. When they say, ‘Don’t build in Jerusalem,’ I stand against,” Netanyahu told Channel 2 in a television interview.
Likud supporters on Sunday draped the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City with huge banners proclaiming “Only Netanyahu will protect Jerusalem” and “Warning: ‘67 border ahead.”
Netanyahu’s electoral alliance, Likud-Beiteinu, is on course to emerge as the biggest party in the 120-seat parliament, with 32 to 35 seats. Negotiations to form the next coalition government will begin immediately after final results are announced.
Most analysts expect Netanyahu to invite the ultra-nationalist Jewish Home party, led by Naftali Bennett, to become a coalition partner following a bruising election battle between the pair.
“An hour after the elections, the fight between Netanyahu and Bennett will be over. They will sit down together to form a coalition government,” the respected columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth.
However, Barnea added that they would then “discover that their real enemies are within their own homes.”
Both parties are fielding extremely hardline candidates, some of whom are expected to become members of the next Knesset.
The expected strengthening of the hard right in the next parliament may encourage Netanyahu to seek a broad base for his coalition.
“He will try for a large coalition to prevent the possibility of one party blackmailing him,” Efraim Inbar of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies said. “The more parties you have, the more they neutralize each other. He will want parties both to his right and to his left.”
Labor, historically the party of the Israeli left, has moved toward the political center. Its leader, former journalist Shelly Yachimovich, has all but refused to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian issue, instead attempting to capitalize on huge socioeconomic protests in Israel 18 months ago.
Labor is expected to be the second-largest party with 16 to 17 seats, but Yachimovich has rejected the possibility of joining a “radical right” coalition led by Netanyahu.
The leaders of two new centrist parties have indicated their willingness to discuss a partnership with the Likud-Beiteinu alliance, led by Netanyahu and the ultra-nationalist former Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Yair Lapid, the leader of the secular Yesh Atid party, which is forecast to win 11 to 13 seats, would be a counterweight to the religious ultra-orthodox parties, which are also potential coalition partners.
Lapid has also steered away from the Israeli-Palestinian issue, concentrating his campaign on social and economic issues.
Former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni may be a more problematic partner for Netanyahu as the chief pitch of her party, Hatnua, has been the resumption of meaningful negotiations with the Palestinians on a two-state settlement to the conflict.
Netanyahu needs to assemble a coalition of more than 60 members of parliament to form the next government.
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The Russian minister of foreign affairs warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited the ally country for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday in Wonsan City, North Korea, where he met North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and conveyed greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim during the meeting reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” taken by Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow share identical views on “all strategic issues in
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
‘FALSE NARRATIVE’: China and the Solomon Islands inked a secretive security pact in 2022, which is believed to be a prelude to building a Chinese base, which Beijing denied The Australian government yesterday said it expects China to spy on major military drills it is conducting with the US and other allies. It also renewed a charge — denounced by Beijing as a “false narrative” — that China wants to establish a military base in the South Pacific. The comments by a government minister came as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a six-day visit to China to bolster recently repaired trade ties. More than 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations are set to join in the annual Talisman Sabre exercises from yesterday across Australia and Papua New Guinea. “The Chinese military have
RSS