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Benjamin Netanyahu is set to lead Israel for a third time after rival Yair Lapid conceded defeat on Thursday evening following this week’s election.
A statement said Mr Lapid congratulated Mr Netanyahu and has instructed his office to prepare an organised transition of power.
“The state of Israel comes before any political consideration,” Mr Lapid said. “I wish Netanyahu success, for the sake of the people of Israel and the State of Israel.”
Mr Lapid, who has served as interim prime minister for the past four months, made the announcement after a near-final vote count showed Mr Netanyahu securing a parliamentary majority with his religious and ultra-nationalist allies.
The former prime minister is expected to form the country’s most right-wing government in history when he takes power, probably in the coming weeks.
Israel held its fifth election in four years on Tuesday, a protracted political crisis that saw voters died over Mr Netanyahu’s fitness to serve while on trial for corruption.
Mr Netanyahu and his ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox allies were expected to control up to 65 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament, the Knesset.
His opponents in the current coalition, led by Mr Lapid, were expected to win 50 or 51 seats, with the remainder held by a small unaffiliated Arab party.
Mr Netanyahu’s victory and his comfortable majority puts an end to Israel’s political instability, for now.
But it leaves Israelis split over their leadership and over the values that define their state: Jewish or democratic.
Mr Netanyahu’s top partner in the government is expected to be the far-right Religious Zionism party, whose main candidate, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is a disciple of an anti-Arab rabbi. Mr Ben-Gvir says he wants to end Palestinian autonomy in parts of the West Bank.
Religious Zionism has promised to enact changes to Israeli law that could make Mr Netanyahu’s legal woes disappear and, along with other nationalist allies, they want to weaken the independence of the judiciary and concentrate more power in the hands of lawmakers.
The party’s leader, Bezalel Smotrich, a West Bank settler who has made anti-Arab remarks, has his sights set on the defence ministry. That would make him the overseer of the military and Israel’s West Bank military occupation.
Mr Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, was ousted in 2021 after 12 consecutive years in power by a coalition that included for the first time in Israel’s history a small Arab party. The coalition collapsed in the spring over infighting.
Mr Netanyahu is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of scandals involving wealthy associates and media moguls. He denies wrongdoing, seeing the trial as a witch hunt against him orchestrated by a hostile media and a biased judicial system.
