Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Wednesday to move quickly to form a rightist governing coalition after nearly complete vote totals showed he had won a decisive election victory.
But the nature of the victory, after a campaign in which Netanyahu rejected a two-state solution and urged his supporters to come out to vote to counter heavy voting from Arab Israelis, raised a variety of difficult issues.
Palestinian officials warned of dire consequences for regional peace efforts, while White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest suggested that Netanyahu’s last-minute campaign appeal “undermines the values and democratic ideals that have been . . . an important part of what binds the United States and Israel together.”
“Rhetoric that seeks to marginalize one segment of their population is deeply concerning and it is divisive, and I can tell you that these are views the administration intends to communicate directly to the Israelis,” Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Obama did not phone Netanyahu to congratulate him. Instead, Secretary of State John Kerry placed the call, which State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki characterized as “brief.” Earnest said Obama no doubt would talk to Netanyahu later.
Following Netanyahu’s comments ruling out a Palestinian state, Earnest said, “The U.S. will evaluate our position going forward.”
For her part, Psaki said the United States remained committed to a two-state solution and that the U.S. would consider how to bring that about in light of Netanyahu’s opposition. “The United States is in a position going forward where we will be evaluating our approach with regard to how best to achieve a two-state solution,” she said. “Obviously, I’m not going to prejudge at this point what that means.”
In Israel, Netanyahu said he already had contacted heads of right-wing and ultra-Orthodox factions and the leader of a new center-right party with the aim of forming a coalition in two to three weeks.
“Our country’s everyday reality doesn’t give us the luxury for delay,” he said.
Along with 30 seats held by his conservative Likud party, the coalition would give Netanyahu a 67-seat majority in the 120-member parliament. Among the parties was a new center-right one, Kulanu, led by Moshe Kahlon, a former Likud member and cabinet minister who campaigned on pocketbook issues such as affordable housing and reducing the cost of living. With 10 parliamentary seats, Kahlon’s support was essential for Netanyahu to obtain a majority in the Knesset.
The coalition also is expected to include the pro-settlement Jewish Home party, which dropped to eight seats after losing voters to Likud; Yisrael Beiteinu, the party led by the ultra-nationalist foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, which fell to six seats; and two ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas, with seven seats, and United Torah Judaism with six.
Isaac Herzog, leader of the center-left Zionist Union alliance, said his party would serve in the opposition, providing a “real alternative in all areas.”
Herzog, with 24 seats, likely will be joined in the opposition by Yesh Atid, a centrist faction focused on socioeconomic issues that dropped to 11 seats from the 19 it won as a new party in previous elections, in 2013. Yesh Atid’s leader, Yair Lapid, was fired by Netanyahu from his post as finance minister after weeks of squabbling in a move that precipitated Tuesday’s election.
The leftist Meretz party, which barely cleared the four-seat threshold for entry into parliament, also will be in the opposition.
An Arab alliance won 14 seats, more than projected, with record Israeli Arab turnout, spurred by Netanyahu’s harsh rhetoric.
It was uncertain how or whether Netanyahu would attempt to heal the rift in relations with the Obama administration and further embittered relations with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu advisers said they expected the prime minister to cool his rhetoric now that the election was past.
Tzahi Hanegbi, a senior Likud official, told reporters late Tuesday that “the prime minister is still committed to everything that he said before, and I believe he is as pragmatic as he used to be.”
Dore Gold, a former ambassador to the United Nations who has advised Netanyahu on foreign policy, said that discussions with Washington would be necessary to clarify issues like the recent statements by Netanyahu. “I think the prime minister’s positions are security-based,” he said. “You have to have a discussion and dialogue about what are the security challenges and how they affect Israel’s choices.”
But Palestinian officials expressed alarm at his success.
“Israeli society voted to bury the peace process, voted against the two-state solution, and voted for continuation of the occupation and the settlements,” Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, told Voice of Palestine radio.
Hanan Ashrawi, a senior official of the Palestine Liberation Organization, warned in a statement that by “negating Palestinian statehood, willfully persisting and violating international law and challenging the will of the international community through an escalation of settlement activities and land theft . . . Netanyahu is liable to plunge the whole region into more extremism and violence.”
Gadi Wolfsfeld, an Israeli expert on political communication at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, said that Netanyahu’s remarks paid off at the polls and that he’ll now try to persuade the United States and Europe that it was just campaign sizzle.
“He appealed to his right-wing base and it worked. It was scorched earth,” Wolfsfeld said. “Now he’ll tell the Europeans he didn’t mean it, and the United States that he wasn’t serious.”
While Obama held off on congratulating Netanyahu, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, offered hers, saying Europe was committed to working with the new Israeli government “on a mutually beneficial relationship as well as on the relaunch of the peace process.”
Hannah Allam and Anita Kumar in Washington contributed to this report.
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