REPORT: Remarkable fallback for Netanyahu despite election victory

Following the 'heavy blow' which hit the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the parliamentary elections, making him lose the quarter of his power, he kicked off work to form a new government of change, which will focus on five major axes, including the Iranian file.             

In this context, given that the number of right-wing deputies is equal to that of the Arab, left and central deputies, Netanyahu's only choice is to form an alliance with the centralist parties, without renouncing the more religious parties.            

On the other hand, Yair Lapid, who is considered the 'star of the elections', was the first to contact Netanyahu calling upon him to conduct negotiations. Then, he called Shas' spiritual leader to confirm the alliance, while the Israeli Labor Party was very clear on rejecting being part of the new cabinet, expressing its preference to join the opposition.                    

Accordingly, PM Benjamin Netanyahu said that the most important focus of the new government will be ensuring a strong security force in order to face the big challenges, among which is preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.                   

For her part, chief of the Labor Party Shelly Yachimovich promised to deploy every possible effort to form an opposition bloc to face an extremist government, noting that this opposition will be strong and unprecedented.                 

The Labor party won two seats and is expected to lead a left-central opposition camp, including Meretz party which doubled its power, as well as national Arab parties which were able to increase their representation at the Knesset. These parties are expected to cooperate in order to form a strong opposition which will stand against Netanyahu's policies.