Early results suggest far-right alliance will take more seats than predicted
After another muddied election result, Benjamin Netanyahu is betting on a partnership with a group so extreme that even the prime minister’s usually unflinching backers from the pro-Israel US lobby cannot stomach it.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) has called Jewish Power, a party of ultranationalist extremists, “racist and reprehensible”. But on Wednesday, although votes are still being counted and success is by no means guaranteed, those same people are being courted by Israel’s longest-serving leader to join an assortment of other parties.
What is clear from early results is that the Religious Zionist party, an alliance of which Jewish Power is a part, has exceeded expectations and will take more seats than predicted. The alliance’s leader, Bezalel Smotrich, once suggested segregated wards in hospitals so Jewish women would not have to give birth next to Palestinians.
An overwhelmingly male crowd at the group’s election party erupted into cheers overnight as exit polls showed the mixture of anti-LGBT and hardline pro-settlement politicians had garnered significant support. Jewish Power’s leader, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is set to become a lawmaker for the first time, was hoisted on to the stage by supporters.
