Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has won the general elections after the current PM Yair Lapid conceded defeat. 

Now, Netanyahu and his allies have won enough seats to form a majority government in Israel’s parliament. His victory will likely mean a further shift towards right-wing politics and diminishing chances for peace in Palestine. 

“We have received a huge vote of confidence and we are on the verge of a very big victory,” the ninth PM of Israel told cheering supporters on Tuesday. 

Exit polls had shown that pro-Netanyahu parties would take 61 or 62 of the parliament’s 120 seats. The alliance is comprised of Netanyahu’s Likud party, Religious Zionism/Jewish Power, Shas and United Torah Judaism.

Current acting Prime Minister Yair Lapid was being backed by Yesh Atid, National Unity, Yisrael Beiteinu, Labor, Meretz and Ra’am.

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Who is Benjamin Netanyahu?

Benjamin Netanyahu served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021.

Currently, he is the Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of Likud – National Liberal Movement.

Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister in the country’s history and also the first prime minister to be born in Israel after its Declaration of Independence.

Born in Tel Aviv to secular Jewish parents, Netanyahu was raised both in Jerusalem, and for a time in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

In 1967, he returned to Israel to join the Israel Defense Forces. He became a team leader in the Sayeret Matkal special forces.

After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Netanyahu became an economic consultant for the Boston Consulting Group.

He moved back to Israel in 1978 to found the Yonatan Netanyahu Anti-Terror Institute. From 1984–1988, Netanyahu was Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations.

In 1993, he was elected as the chairman of Likud, becoming Leader of the Opposition.

He went on to defeat the incumbent prime minister Shimon Peres at the 1996 election and became Israel’s youngest-ever prime minister.

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After serving a single term, Netanyahu and Likud were heavily defeated in the 1999 election by Ehud Barak’s One Israel party.

Several years later, Netanyahu returned to politics, and served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance.

Netanyahu returned to the leadership of Likud in December 2005 after Sharon stepped down to form a new party, Kadima. He led Likud to victory in the 2013 and 2015 elections.

After the April 2019 election resulted in no party being able to form a government, a second election in 2019 took place.

In the September 2019 election, the centrist Blue and White alliance, led by Benny Gantz, emerged slightly ahead of Netanyahu’s Likud. However, none were able to form a government.

In June 2021, after Naftali Bennett formed a government with Yair Lapid, Netanyahu was removed from the premiership.

In 2019, Netanyahu was indicted on charges of breach of trust, bribery and fraud.

Netanyahu has been married three times. His first marriage was to Miriam Weizmann. In 1978, while Weizmann was pregnant, Netanyahu met British student named Fleur Cates at the university library. The two started an affair which led to his divorce. In 1981, Netanyahu married Cates. The couple divorced in 1984.

Netanyahu married Sara Ben-Artzi in 1991 after the two met on a El Al flight from New York to Israel.

They have two sons: Yair (born 26 July 1991), and Avner (born 10 October 1994).