Image courtesy – Reuters

Jerusalem - Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s former Prime Minister appeared set to return to power as exit polls showed an early lead Wednesday.

"We have won a huge vote of confidence from the people of Israel," a smiling Netanyahu told cheering supporters at his Likud party election headquarters. "We are on the brink of a very big victory."

The exit polls are preliminary, and final results could change as votes are tallied overnight. According to Israeli television exit polls late on Tuesday, Netanyahu’s bloc of four parties will take 62 of the Knesset's 120 seats. The polls indicate a continued rightward shift in the Israeli electorate, further dimming hopes for peace with the Palestinians and setting the stage for possible conflict with the Biden administration and Israel’s supporters in the U.S.

Tuesday’s election was Israel’s fifth in less than four years, with all of them focused largely on Netanyahu’s fitness to govern. Netanyahu is on trial for a slew of corruption charges, however his supporters see him as the victim of a witch hunt and vilified by opponents as a crook and threat to democracy.

The record 12-year consecutive reign of Israel's longest serving prime minister, Netanyahu, ended in June 2021 when centrist Yair Lapid managed to stitch together an unlikely coalition government of liberals, rightists and Arab parties.

But the coalition that Lapid cobbled together, which included the first Arab party ever to join a government, was ravaged by infighting and collapsed after just one year in power.

As actual results began trickling in, Lapid stopped short at conceding the election and said he would wait until the final count. Exit polls late on Tuesday predicted his camp would take 53-54 Knesset seats, far behind Netanyahu.

Netanyahu has been counting on support from Ben-Gvir and fellow far-right leader Bezalel Smotrich.

Such a future Netanyahu government would put it on a collision course with the Biden administration, which supports a two-state solution with the Palestinians. It could also alienate Israeli allies in the U.S., particularly the predominantly liberal Jewish American community.
-AP/Reuters