Netanyahu accused of smear tactics to cling to power after election loss

Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of using smear tactics to cling to power after claiming that Arab Israeli parties used foreign backing to “steal” Tuesday’s election, in which his coalition lost its parliamentary majority. The accusations drew rebukes from opposition leaders, police and election officials, and Israel’s president.

Final results released early on Friday local time showed the pro-Netanyahu bloc winning 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, while the main opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot took 48. The Joint List and Ra’am, the two Arab Israeli parties, won the remaining 19 seats — a historic high for a community that makes up about a fifth of Israel’s population. Neither Jewish bloc has enough seats to govern alone, leaving the Arab parties holding the balance of power.

Disputed claims Netanyahu and his allies called on Shin Bet, the internal security service, to investigate alleged vote buying and other irregularities in Palestinian communities in Israel, supposedly funded by foreign money. The acting director general of the central elections committee, Dean Livneh, said there appeared to be no basis for the claims. Police officials quoted in Israeli press said the allegations were groundless and voting had been relatively trouble-free.

President Isaac Herzog called on political leaders to avoid tarnishing an entire community that had exercised its right to vote and take part in democracy. Press reports said Qatar was the foreign power alleged to have funded vote-buying and voter mobilisation, though Likud statements did not specify this. Majed al-Ansari, an adviser to Qatar’s prime minister, categorically denied any involvement.

Opposition reaction Eisenkot accused Netanyahu and his Likud party of a coordinated, organised campaign to delegitimise the election results. Netanyahu, 77, has run Israel for 19 of the past 30 years. Eisenkot said any investigation should be conducted without fear or favour and with the utmost caution, but must not delay the convening of the new Knesset, due to be sworn in within 14 days. Yousef Jabareen, the Joint List leader, accused the prime minister of incitement and said Netanyahu was defeated at the ballot box and refuses to accept that the Arab public voted and decided.

On Wednesday night, Netanyahu posted a Likud statement online describing the claimed violations as an attack on democracy aimed at a foreign takeover of the Knesset, the Islamisation of Israel and the overthrow of rightwing rule. The statement said no Zionist party should cooperate with Ra’am and the Joint List, replace the Knesset speaker through cash-bought votes, and form a government dangerous to Israel.

The prime minister’s attack appeared aimed at stopping the Jewish and Arab opposition from voting together in the new Knesset to oust speaker Amir Ohana, a Likud politician and former Shin Bet official, and to advance their own legislation. The Joint List and the Zionist “Change” bloc have ruled out a formal coalition, but officials from both have discussed tactical voting to unseat Ohana and pass consensus legislation.

Ahmad Tibi, a Joint List party leader, told Reuters that Netanyahu was trying to subvert the election results by sabotaging a common front between Eisenkot’s bloc and the Arab Israeli parties. Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister and partner in the “Change” bloc, noted the irony of Netanyahu denouncing Qatari election meddling while his own political advisers have been accused of taking Qatari money to promote the Gulf monarchy’s image.

Source: The Guardian World.