Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tasted victory yet again on Wednesday 10th April 2019 when he won the Israeli national election, recording his fifth term as a PM. Benjamin was challenged by Benny Gantz, and although with 97% votes counted, no party was in a situation of a clear majority, Netanyahu was in a strong position. He formed a coalition government with other right-wing candidates who backed him.
At the time of counting, all the main channels in Israel showed Netanyahu’s Likud party to be still stuck at 35 seats along with his opponent’s Blue and White party having got the same number of seats. However, it was the right-wing coalition which helped Netanyahu in pushing the total up to 65, granting majority in the 120 seat parliament. The opponent headed by Benny Gantz only managed to get 55 seats. Although the final victory would be announced by Thursday, there is an absolute chance that the former Prime Minister has already won.
The fight between Benjamin and Benny was seen as a close contest between two strong leaders. If confirmed, this victory will pull out Netanyahu from the controversies he was a part of before the elections, which included bribery and corruption charges. He denied all the accusations claiming them to be nothing but politically motivated accusations.
Netanyahu’s win will make him the longest serving Prime Minister in Israel’s 71-year old history. He has been in power since the year 2009 and has been in controversies ever since then. Both Benny and Benjamin confirmed their victory on Tuesday night but the picture became clearer the following Wednesday morning when Netanyahu was painted as a winner. Final results would be out on Friday, but Thursday will mark utmost surety on who has defeated whom.
Benjamin Netanyahu received a lot of outside support from a lot of people, including US President Donald Trump. Trump made several foreign policies changes few of which affected Israel favorably. Though he has received support from the outside, he is yet to convince his own countrymen to not to see him as a corrupt and bad politician. Will he be able to do it? Only time will tell.
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