Nov. 2 (UPI) — With the help of Israel’s far-right, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears poised for a comeback Wednesday with 85% of the general election ballots counted. Netanyahu is still on trial for corruption as the ballots are counted.
Based on the votes so far, Netanyahu’s bloc of religious and far-right parties are on track to win 65 of the 120 Knesset seats.
Netanyahou faces multiple counts of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three criminal corruption cases.
To clinch his victory, Netanyahu needs the backing of the ultra-nationalist Religious Zionism Party, co-led by Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Gvir was a follower of explicitly racist Meir Kahane. Ben-Gvir was convicted of supporting a terror organization and inciting racism in 2007.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid told supporters in Tel Aviv that nothing has been decided yet and his center-left Yesh Atid Party will wait for the final election results.
According to the Times of Israel, the only way Netanyahu can be stopped is for the Meretz and Balad parties to get enough votes to put them over the 3.25% minimal threshold while the left-wing Labor Party doesn’t fall below that threshold.
This is the fifth Israeli election in four years. Final results may not be known until Friday.
When asked about fears that he would lead a far-right government, Netanyahu told CNN, “We don’t want a government with the Muslim Brotherhood, who support terrorism, deny the existence of Israel and are pretty hostile to the United States. That is what we are going to bring.”
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