Netanyahu meets with far-right Ben Gvir and puts on track the formation of a right-wing coalition

7 (EUROPE PRESS)

The former Israeli prime minister and leader of Likud, Benjamin Netanyahu, met this Monday in Tel Aviv with the far-right Itamar Ben Gvir in an attempt to gather support to form a right-wing coalition after Yisrael Beitenu’s refusal. After the meeting, Ben Gvir assured that they are “on the right track” to form a government.

Ben Gvir, who presides over Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) and ran in the last elections along with Religious Zionism, a party led by Bezalel Smotrich and which won 14 seats, has made it a condition to enter the future new Netanyahu government to occupy the portfolio of Public Security, according to the newspaper ‘The Times of Israel’.

After the meeting, Ben Gvir highlighted the “good atmosphere” of the meeting. “We are on the right track for the establishment of a totally, totally right-wing government,” he stressed, according to ‘The Times of Israel’.

The new executive “will protect the soldiers of the Army, will look into the eyes of the people who are afraid to walk through the Negev and Galilee and will give them back a sense of security, of control. We have a lot of work to do,” he stressed.

Ben Gvir stated during the electoral campaign that he would ask for the Ministry of Public Security, which would fit in with these statements, but it is a portfolio that could generate conflicts.

This meeting between Netanyahu and Ben Gvir comes after Netanyahu, who won 32 seats in the elections, has avoided being photographed with the far-right during the entire election campaign, leading to several clashes with Ben Gvir.

Among them, an event held in the Kfar Chabad village stands out, where Netanyahu refused to go on stage due to the presence of the far-rightist and remained in his car while the organizers tried to convince the leader of Otzma Yehudit to leave the place, according to what has been collected. the daily ‘Haaretz’.

Netanyahu met yesterday separately with the leader of Religious Zionism, Bezalel Smotrich, in Jerusalem, in an attempt to form a three-way alliance after the refusal of the Israeli Finance Minister and leader of the far-right Yisrael Beitenu, Avigdor Lieberman.

Lieberman, who was an ally of Netanyahu early in his career, has distanced himself from him in recent years and has refused to join forces with him and other ultra-Orthodox parties, which in 2018 opposed his membership draft bill. of this community.

The right-wing bloc close to Netanyahu won an absolute majority in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, after the legislative elections, according to the official count, with Likud and its partners with about 65 of the 120 seats in the House. The Electoral Commission reported that the far-right Religious Zionism won 14 seats in coalition with Otzma Yehudit, an unprecedented milestone in the history of the far right in Israel.