Results all but final, jostling for coalition spots begins

Headed toward his largest-ever election victory as leader of the Likud party, and with the Knesset’s right-wing bloc holding a clear lead, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was widely seen Wednesday morning as having secured a fifth term in office.

But after a grueling campaign, Netanyahu now faces a new task — that of attempting to form a functioning governing coalition. In a victory speech late Tuesday, he promised to form a “right-wing government” but also to serve as the prime minister of all Israelis, right and left, Jewish and non-Jewish.

With around 95 percent of ballots counted, Netanyahu’s Likud appeared to have won 35 seats in the Knesset, tied with the Benny Gantz-led Blue and White. But the bloc of right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties held 65 seats, and Netanyahu is expected to secure a majority of recommendations when faction leaders meet the president in the coming days.

The decision regarding who will be the next prime minister ultimately lies with President Reuven Rivlin, who will meet with the leaders of all the parties that cleared the electoral threshold, hear whom each of them recommends as prime minister, and determine which candidate has the best chance of forming a coalition of at least 61 out of the 120 elected Knesset members.

Israel has never had a single-party government, and the next coalition, like the last one, is certain to be a product of tense negotiations among about half a dozen parties that may take days or weeks.

Netanyahu could theoretically form a unity government with Blue and White. With a combined 70 seats, the two parties could form a center-right coalition that would be the largest since 2013. Last week Gantz was heard in a leaked recording saying he would not rule out a unity government with Netanyahu, although he later backtracked. On Wednesday morning, Blue and White candidates Avi Nissenkorn and Ofer Shelah ruled out joining a Netanyahu-led coalition.

“Blue and White is taking a path of change. Over a million people voted for change,” Nissenkorn told Ynet.

In any case, Netanyahu will prefer the right-wing parties that he said in his victory speech early Wednesday morning were Likud’s “natural partners,” adding that nearly all of them have publicly declared they will recommend that he form the next government.

The third-largest party is Shas, headed up by Aryeh Deri, a former convict who is again under criminal investigation and awaits prosecutors’ decision on whether to press charges. He has said he would like to see himself back in the Interior Ministry, the position he currently holds.

United Torah Judaism, led by Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, is largely aiming to retain its position as senior coalition partner to Netanyahu and arbiter on matters of religion and state.

According to an internal document from a committee advising the party, UTJ may demand a steeper price for entering the government, with a focus on cutting back public transportation on Shabbat and stronger enforcement against businesses operating during the day of rest. Another priority for the party is advancing a softened law to regulate the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men to the Israel Defense Forces, obstructing the passage of a Defense Ministry draft of the bill.

Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu was not expected by many to pass the electoral threshold, but near-final results showed the unapologetically secular right-wing party will safely re-enter the Knesset. Last November Liberman resigned as defense minister, saying that Netanyahu had “capitulated” to terror in his Gaza policies.

Liberman said Wednesday morning he would back Netanyahu, but that Yisrael Beytenu joining the coalition was conditional.

“We will fight for our principles in the negotiations with the Likud party, and there is still a possibility that we will be in the opposition,” Liberman said.

According to a report Monday, Bezalel Smotrich, the co-leader of the Union of Right Wing Parties (URWP), said that Netanyahu had promised his faction the education and justice ministries if it joins the coalition.

Likud denied the report.

Kulanu party head Moshe Kahlon also initially said he would wait to make a decision, but later indicated he would back Netanyahu, easing the prime minister’s path to remain in power. Kahlon has said he will again demand the finance portfolio.