Netanyahu Returns As Israel’s PM For Record 6th Time

Israeli lawmakers on Thursday, swore-in Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister of  the Jewish state for the 6th time.

Netanyahu, 73, was elected by 63 out of 120 members of Israel’s Parliament, with 54 voting against his government. The vote of confidence given to him by the 63 lawmakers was enough to cement his place as Israel’s longest-serving Prime Minister.

Mr. Netanyahu, who steps in to replace outgoing Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, will form a government that is already being criticised by experts as the most far-right, religiously conservative government in the history of the Jewish state.

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Many left-wing politicians and Palestinians fear the return of Netanyahu, whose government is being supported by far-right groups like United Torah Judaism, the Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionist Party, Noam and his right-winged party called Likud party, would make reforms not favourable to them.

Speaking in the parliament after the voting, Netanyahu said stopping Iran’s nuclear programme, building good relationship with more Arab nations and building bullet trains that run across the country are his “national goals.”

Some of the citizens and opposition members who were not happy with his return as Prime Minister and his promises, gathered outside the parliament to protest his return.

Some opposition lawmakers called him “weak” and “racist” during the protest.

Outgoing Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, while thanking the citizens for the time he served them, said he would not stop fighting to remove the incoming government which he tagged “destruction.”

“Citizens of Israel, thanks for the last year and a half,” Lapid wrote. “This isn’t the end, this is the beginning of the struggle for our beloved country. We are fighting for the future of our kids and we won’t stop until we topple the government of destruction, and return,” he said.

A day before his swearing-in as Prime Minister, Netanyahu said an expansion of settlement in the disputed West Bank is a top priority of his government.

The policy guidelines for the new government released by the Likud Party of Netanyahu promised to “advance and develop settlement in all parts of the land of Israel – in the Galilee, Negev, Golan Heights, Judea and Samaria” – the Biblical names for the occupied West Bank.

The move has been tagged by the government of Palestine as a “dangerous escalation.”

The state of politics has been intense with elections holding in the Jewish state five times in four years.

Benjamin Netanyahu who himself has been called out and tried for corruption in the country before his election and return to power, has been Prime Minister between 1996 and 1999. Then he returned to power between 2009 and 2021.

Netanyahu’s return would see him forming the 37th government of the Jewish state.