Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lined up a majority of members of the nation's Knesset, which will allow him to continue leading the government.
Netanyahu, whose re-election campaign was directly opposed by former members of the Obama administration, collected the support of 67 members, a majority of the 120-person body.
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Netanyahu's Likud party won a plurality of 30 seats. In Israel's parliamentary system, it was then his responsibility to contact other parties and build a working coalition of a majority of Knesset votes.
The Times of Israel reported Mashoe Kahlon's Kulanu party and Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu party on Monday recommended that President Reuven Rivlin choose Netanyahu as the next prime minister.
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"Coalition negotiations between various parties are expected to begin in earnest Wednesday, and Netanyahu will have four weeks to form his government, with an option to extend talks for another two," the Times reported.
Rivlin said, according to the Times, the "political issues and the pressure that our best friends in Europe and the U.S. will exert require a broad coalition in the upcoming Knesset."
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WND columnist Kathy Shaidle reported radio talk host Michael Savage commented it was not so much that Netanyahu, a conservative whose goals align with a strong Israel and no nuclear weapons for Iran, won, but that President Obama lost.
"He spent all of his powers trying to defeat Netanyahu short of going to war with Israel," Savage said. "Those of you who are religious are celebrating today because it was God's will that Netanyahu won. Pragmatically, though, the Jews in Israel know their backs are against the wall. Americans don't really know what an existential threat to their survival means. They live in a dream world."
Talk show host Mark Levin also discussed with Middle East expert Caroline Glick how American money was used to get out the Arab vote in Israel, but the effort backfired as Netanyahu's base rallied around him in defiance.
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Listen to Glick on Levin's show.
The Hill reported a pollster for Netanyahu confirmed the Obama administration's intervention in the Israeli election.
"What was not well reported in the American media is that President Obama and his allies were playing in the election to defeat Prime Minister Netanyahu," John McLaughlin, a Republican strategist, said in an interview on John Catsimatidis's "The Cats Roundtable" radio show broadcast Sunday on AM 970 in New York.
"There was money moving that included taxpayer U.S. dollars, through non-profit organizations," he said. "And there were various liberal groups in the United States that were raising millions to fund a campaign called V15 against Prime Minister Netanyahu."
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WND was first to report a State Department-financed nonprofit based in Israel was engaged in a major effort to get young Arab citizens to the voting booths and defeat Netanyahu.
Israeli election trends have long demonstrated that Arab citizen’s vote overwhelmingly for left-wing and Arab parties. Any increase in the Arab vote would clearly come at the expense of the Likud Party and other right-wing parties.
In an interview with the Israel Hayom newspaper, which is financed by U.S. billionaire Sheldon Adelson, Netanyahu spoke of “tens of millions of shekels from abroad” aiding in an effort to mobilize Israeli Arabs to vote.
“There is a coalition of both open and secret factors which aims to bring down the Likud government and replace it with a leftist government," the prime minister stated.
“I'm talking about very large forces ... tens of millions of shekels from abroad, consultants and others, to do two things: to mobilize left-wing voters at the ballot box on a much larger scale, and to bring a massive mobilization of Israeli Arabs to the polls. This is a well-financed scheme that can lead to the number of Arab mandates coming to 16 and this can decide the election."
Indeed, following the country’s most recent parliamentary election in 2013, Arab lawmakers complained that a higher Arab voter turnout could have tipped the election toward the left and defeated Netanyahu.
Also, as WND reported last month, the U.S. has not been standing on the sidelines when it comes to mobilizing the all-important Arab vote.
In an interview with WND, Amnon Beeri-Sulitzeanu, co-executive director of the Abraham Fund, maintained that his group’s voter participation activities are entirely nonpartisan and that his organization does not endorse any political party.
The Abraham Fund works to encourage Arab participation in the Israeli economic, cultural and civic arenas. Its slogan is: “Building a shared future for Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens.”
In 2010, the State Department provided the Abraham Fund a $999,715 three-year grant for an education initiative in cooperation with Israel’s Ministry of Education. Another part of the grant was designated to a project with the Israeli security services aimed at fostering closer Arab-Jewish ties.
WND reported V15, short for Victory 2015, partnered with OneVoice, a U.S.-U.K. nonprofit, for its get-out-the-vote-organizing drive aimed at replacing Netanyahu’s government with a center-left coalition.
OneVoice is reportedly sponsored by scores of nonprofits and received two grants in the past year from the U.S. State Department. The State Department is also listed as a partner of OneVoice on the group’s website.