Caladan
Agnostic Pantheist
After reading some of the slightly to fully misinformed posts here I think an Israeli view is in order, so I'll indulge you.Pretty arcane thread. Does anyone have some sort of primer to let us uninitiated get up to speed?
First to the very basics. Benjamin Netanyhau and his Likud-Israel Beytenu alliance won the most seats.
Now to the full and bigger picture. Although Netanyahu and the right wing Likud received the most votes, their power has dramatically weakened. They received significantly less votes than in the previous elections. The political division in these election is balanced to 60 seats to the right wing and 60 seats to the center-left.
This means several important things. A new comer into Israeli politics (but not an unkown media figure in Israel) Yair Laipd, a centrist, received an impressive 19 seats power. Making Lapid the second most powerful man in these elections. Lapid conditions a coalition under a couple of issues: Economic changes and resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians.
The focus on economic realities in Israel is a big factor in shifting attention from an Iran-Israel rivalry and into domestic social and economic issues.
Another important element in this reality is that Lapid is part of the secular camp in Israel, and as we examine the elections results, the Ultra-Orthodox parties may find themselves out of the coalition which will be a welcomed changed for a large secular public in Israel who wishes to see better separation of religion and state, and in addition equal load sharing in an Israeli society in which the Ultra orthodox community does not share the same economic load or the same load in other Israeli issues such as military service.
Other results of these elections is the still weakened position of the Israeli labour, and the empowerment of left wing parties like Meretz which have doubled their votes, and incidentally the party I voted for (as much as I try to make my posts about Israeli security issues according to standard narratives).
So, to sum my post. The results put the parliament balanced between 60 seats to the right wing and 60 seats to the center-left. A potential to shift the focus to economic changes from the security and geopolitical narrative, and a further potential for more secularization, at least from the ultra orthodox monopolies as they have butted themselves into previous coalitions.
One of the dramas of these elections is that with an equal power to the right wing, there were strong voices in the center-left powers to create a counter bloc to Netanyahu and the right wing. Or the other option is to go into coalition as Lapid seems to be doing under certain conditions and red lintes placed for Netanyahu and the right wing bloc.