The cabinet that is emerging is the most right-wing in Israel’s history, according to analysts.
The head of Religious Zionism, Bezalel Smotrich, has already indicated that he wants the portfolios of Defense and Public Security, two key positions at a time when the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is registering its highest peak of violence in seven years.
The release of the results came on a day in which four Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank and Jerusalem, including a man from Jerusalem who police say stabbed an officer, and a fighter from the Islamic Jihad, in a context of outbreaks of violence.
“It is time to bring security back to the streets, to restore order, to show who is boss, it is time to kill a terrorist who is carrying out an attack,” said far-right leader Itamar Ben Gvir.
The Lapid government “is coming to an end,” he added.
Ben-Gvir, a West Bank settler and former member of Kach — a Jewish militant group that is on Israel and the United States’ terrorist lists — wants to be police minister.
Such an appointment would be “embarrassing” on the international stage, said Palestinian analyst Khaldoun Barghouti.
Yosi Klein Halev, a researcher at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, told AFP that “Netanyahu will have a hard time controlling his new partners.”
The US State Department said before the results were released that it hopes “all senior Israeli officials will continue to share the values of an open, democratic and tolerant society with respect to civil society, especially minority groups.”
With information from AFP and Reuters