Lapid Announces Militant Opposition to Netanyahu Administration Final Sprint Before Midterm Election: Biden and Obama Campaign Together

Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Jair Lapid has announced a militant opposition to the right-wing religious camp of election winner Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu’s camp won a majority of 64 of the 120 seats in the parliament (Knesset) in the November 1 elections.

“There is no scenario where we will enter the new government,” Lapid confirmed Sunday in Jerusalem at a memorial service for Israeli Prime Minister Izchak Rabin, who was assassinated in November 1995. “We will fight until we are back in government,” said 58-year-old Lapid. His liberal Future Party had become the second strongest force in the election after Netanyahu’s right-wing conservative Likud party.

Netanyahu already held unofficial talks with potential coalition partners on Sunday, including the far-right coalition, which ranked third for the first time in Israel’s history. The religious Zionist party of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir wants to make sweeping changes, including a weakening of Israel’s legal system.

The left-liberal Meretz Party failed at the 3.25 percent threshold for the first time since its founding in 1992 and will not be represented in parliament. The current eight-party coalition collapsed in June after losing its majority after just 12 months.

The official final results of the election will be announced on Wednesday. President Izchak Herzog then has until November 16 to nominate a candidate to form a government. (saw/sda/dpa)