TEL AVIV // It was a political slap in the face for Benjamin Netanyahu.
The right-wing Israeli prime minister may have gained a third term as prime minister in Tuesday's election after his Likud party and its ultranationalist electoral ticket partner won the highest number of seats - 31 - in Israel's 120-member parliament.
However, the Israeli leader has emerged politically weakened because yesterday's near-final tally showed that Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu together lost a quarter of the seats that the two parties hold in Israel's outgoing parliament. The result was also significantly lower than the 45 seats they had expected when announcing their union last year.
The outcome was worse for Mr Netanyahu because - contrary to predictions that Israeli politics were swinging irrevocably rightward - the camp of the right, and the combined one of the centre and left, seemed to unexpectedly win an equal number of seats.
That could place Mr Netanyahu in a quagmire, experts said. Namely, he may have to moderate his hard-line stance on issues like settlements and the Palestinians to draw centrist parties to his government and form a large coalition, while risking the ire of his pro-settler political and financial backers, analysts said.
At the same time, the conflict with the Palestinians is likely to be low on the next government's agenda as many voters' surprisingly high support for centrist parties reflected a discontent more about economic issues and the power of the ultra-Orthodox than about the deadlocked peace process, according to experts.
Israeli media was flooded with condemnation of Mr Netanyahu yesterday, with the liberal Haaretz newspaper labelling him a "man of the past", and a columnist for the right-leaning NRG news website predicting he'll become "the weakest premier in the country's history".
Gabriel Weimann, a professor of political science at Haifa University, said: "It was a huge loss for Netanyahu. He not only lost much of his support base, but he lost the possibility of creating a stable coalition from a strengthened position."
The premier's mistakes, analysts said, ranged from underestimating growing dissatisfaction over the high cost of living in the country to losing some of the Likud's more moderate voters by joining forces with the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party of Avigdor Lieberman in November.
Mr Netanyahu is likely to begin intensive negotiations with potential political partners within a week, when he is expected to be tapped by the Israeli president to form a coalition. He will then have up to six weeks to cobble together a government.
Analysts said his next coalition will probably include the unexpected political star of the elections, Yair Lapid, the 49-year-old head of the centrist There is a Future party and a popular ex-television news anchor and newspaper columnist. The movement of Mr Lapid, the son of a prominent former justice minister with a fiercely anti-religious agenda, garnered 19 parliamentary seats and became the second-biggest party after Likud.
Experts said Mr Lapid, who campaigned on ending army draft exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox and on mitigating economic hardships, is likely to play a key role in the upcoming coalition negotiations, possibly forcing Mr Netanyahu to abandon his traditional right-wing and ultrareligious political allies in favour of a more moderate government. Yesterday, Mr Lapid called for "as broad a government as possible" that would include "moderate forces from the left and right".
Despite being considered a centrist who favours negotiations with the Palestinians, Mr Lapid's debut in the political arena is not expected to help reignite deadlocked peace talks.
After all, the upstart politician has mostly ignored Israeli-Palestinian ties during his campaign. In a rare statement on the issue, he said in October that Israel's aim with the peace talks should be "a divorce agreement we can live with." However, he pointedly made that statement during a campaign speech at the contentious Jewish settlement of Ariel, located deep inside the West Bank, suggesting his possible support for Israel retaining that community in a peace pact.
Israel insists Ariel is one of five so-called major settlement blocs it plans to keep under any peace pact, but the Palestinians have indicated they would oppose the Israeli annexation of Ariel.
The likelihood that Mr Netanyahu may also add the far-right Jewish Home party to his next government would also make a settlement with the Palestinians even less probable.
Jewish Home's leader, Naftali Bennett, considered an election winner as well by grabbing votes from disgruntled Likud supporters and garnering 11 seats for his party, rejects Palestinian statehood and advocates for an Israeli annexation of most of the West Bank.
Palestinian officials yesterday expressed pessimism about a possible restart of peace negotiations with the next Israeli government despite the better-than-expected results of the centre and left.
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah: "I don't see a peace coalition or a peace camp emerging now and revitalising itself."
vbekker@thenational.ae
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Five%20calorie-packed%20Ramadan%20drinks
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Company: Instabug
Founded: 2013
Based: Egypt, Cairo
Sector: IT
Employees: 100
Stage: Series A
Investors: Flat6Labs, Accel, Y Combinator and angel investors
Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 582bhp
Torque: 730Nm
Price: Dh649,000
On sale: now
Results
%3Cp%3E%0D%3Cstrong%3EElite%20men%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3E1.%20Amare%20Hailemichael%20Samson%20(ERI)%202%3A07%3A10%0D%3Cbr%3E2.%20Leornard%20Barsoton%20(KEN)%202%3A09%3A37%0D%3Cbr%3E3.%20Ilham%20Ozbilan%20(TUR)%202%3A10%3A16%0D%3Cbr%3E4.%20Gideon%20Chepkonga%20(KEN)%202%3A11%3A17%0D%3Cbr%3E5.%20Isaac%20Timoi%20(KEN)%202%3A11%3A34%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EElite%20women%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3E1.%20Brigid%20Kosgei%20(KEN)%202%3A19%3A15%0D%3Cbr%3E2.%20Hawi%20Feysa%20Gejia%20(ETH)%202%3A24%3A03%0D%3Cbr%3E3.%20Sintayehu%20Dessi%20(ETH)%202%3A25%3A36%0D%3Cbr%3E4.%20Aurelia%20Kiptui%20(KEN)%202%3A28%3A59%0D%3Cbr%3E5.%20Emily%20Kipchumba%20(KEN)%202%3A29%3A52%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
RESULTS
6.30pm: Longines Conquest Classic Dh150,000 Maiden 1,200m.
Winner: Halima Hatun, Antonio Fresu (jockey), Ismail Mohammed (trainer).
7.05pm: Longines Gents La Grande Classique Dh155,000 Handicap 1,200m.
Winner: Moosir, Dane O’Neill, Doug Watson.
7.40pm: Longines Equestrian Collection Dh150,000 Maiden 1,600m.
Winner: Mazeed, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
8.15pm: Longines Gents Master Collection Dh175,000 Handicap.
Winner: Thegreatcollection, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.
8.50pm: Longines Ladies Master Collection Dh225,000 Conditions 1,600m.
Winner: Cosmo Charlie, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.
9.25pm: Longines Ladies La Grande Classique Dh155,000 Handicap 1,600m.
Winner: Secret Trade, Tadhg O’Shea, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
10pm: Longines Moon Phase Master Collection Dh170,000 Handicap 2,000m.
Winner:
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
'Saand Ki Aankh'
Produced by: Reliance Entertainment with Chalk and Cheese Films
Director: Tushar Hiranandani
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar, Prakash Jha, Vineet Singh
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
T20 World Cup Qualifier
Final: Netherlands beat PNG by seven wickets
Qualified teams
1. Netherlands
2. PNG
3. Ireland
4. Namibia
5. Scotland
6. Oman
T20 World Cup 2020, Australia
Group A: Sri Lanka, PNG, Ireland, Oman
Group B: Bangladesh, Netherlands, Namibia, Scotland
The biog
Hometown: Cairo
Age: 37
Favourite TV series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror
Favourite anime series: Death Note, One Piece and Hellsing
Favourite book: Designing Brand Identity, Fifth Edition
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
ASIAN%20RUGBY%20CHAMPIONSHIP%202024
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