The Likud published a statement Wednesday harshly criticizing Yamina Leader Naftali Bennett for "refusing to support the only solution to the political deadlock that does not involve destroying the Right."

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As suspicions grow that Bennett might side with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, Likud accused the Yamina leader of "galloping to a left-wing government" as a result of his "uncontrollable ambition" to become prime minister. "With seven seats, he is ready to crown a left-wing government with a coalition of 50 left-wing Knesset members," the statement said.

According to Likud, Bennett is acting against the will of voters who gave the right-wing government 65 mandates, and in stark contrast to his campaign promise not to form a government with the Left.

"Bennett's paralyzed left-wing government will fall apart within a few months and lead to the dissolution of the Knesset and a fifth-round of elections. It will not be able to withstand even one day of international pressure against settlements and Israel Defense Forces soldiers and the race for dangerous agreements with Iran. It will not even be able to advance a single right-wing measure.

"Bennett refuses to support the only solution to the political deadlock that does not involve destroying the Right: a quick vote to elect a prime minister that does not involve the dissolution of the Knesset and another round of elections. The chosen prime minister will be able to form a government immediately. Most of the public supports this solution," the statement said.

It appears that Bennett opposes a direct election for a prime minister. In talks with his associates, he reportedly said that electing a prime minister without having a Knesset that supports him will not solve the crisis but will only give power to whomever is elected.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Yamina leader Naftali Bennett on Tuesday to support legislation that would establish direct elections for the prime minister.

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"He should announce tonight that he supports the bill," Netanyahu said at the conclusion of a press conference with Health Minister Yuli Edelstein.

Netanyahu accused Bennett of "preventing the establishment of a right-wing government" and "wanting to be prime minister because of personal ambition."

"There is a solution to the political impasse. The solution is a direct election for the prime minister, to allow the public who they want to lead the country," Netanyahu said.

"The last election proved that the public wants a right-wing government. In the Knesset there are 65 clear right-wing mandates, and the only reason we can't form a right-wing government now is because of personal, not ideological, issues. Therefore, there are two possibilities: Either form a left-wing government with a right-wing fig leaf – with Meretz, the Joint Arab List, and labor – which goes against the will of the voters and against Bennett and Gideon Sa'ar's commitments.

"The second option is to form a stable right-wing government for four years after a snap election for prime minister, because the public will choose who the next prime minister will be. We wouldn't need to dissolve the Knesset or hold a fifth [parliamentary] election. We need a rapid referendum and to allow the people to decide who will be prime minister. I will accept any result and I hope that others will, as well," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu said a referendum vote for prime minister could be held "immediately," and depended on one person – Naftali Bennett.

"If Bennett supports the bill, it will have a majority. There is no reason for him not to support it. He made a commitment to a right-wing government and promised not to join Yair Lapid and the Left. I met with him a few times and I offered him a senior position in the cabinet. Unfortunately, even though I was given a mandate by the president to form a government, Bennett is simultaneously negotiations to establish a left-wing government," Netanyahu said.

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"This means that only because of a personal ambition to become prime minister with seven mandates, Bennett is not allowing us to discharge our duty and form a stable right-wing government. We saw it [Monday] night, as well, when Yamina voted against the Right in the Knesset. If Bennett truly wants a right-wing government, he should announce today that he supports a direct vote for prime minister, and we'll get out of this mess," Netanyahu continued.

The prime minister went on to say that there was no need to form a government that would include the Islamist party Ra'am.

Meanwhile, Ra'am, will not support Netanyahu's push for direct elections for the premiership, Channel 12 News reported on Tuesday.

Ra'am had reportedly soured on supporting Netanyahu's bid for direct elections in response to his rhetoric about the possibility of the party joining the next government.

Party leader MK Mansour Abbas has been careful not to publicly endorse any political camp following Israel's legislative elections on March 23, stating repeatedly that he will only back the politician best capable of addressing problems currently plaguing the Arab-Israeli community.

i24NEWS contributed to this report

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MK Mansour Abbas' Ra'am party has decided in principle to back a coalition under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while remaining outside it, a senior party official told Israel Hayom.

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According to the official, the decision to provide "outside" support for a coalition led by the prime ministers does not necessarily mean that Ra'am will recommend to President Reuven Rivlin that he tap Netanyahu to form the next government. The official added that the decision to support a Netanyahu-led coalition could change if Ra'am's demands were not met.

The official explained that Ra'am would insist that leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party Itamar Ben-Gvir not be given any operative role or any high-ranking ministerial portfolio in the new government, and that significantly larger budgets are allocated to fight crime in the Arab sector. The party also plans to discuss the cancellation of or major changes to the Nation-State Law.

According to the official, the party decided to support a coalition led by Netanyahu for a few reasons.

"First and foremost, because the bloc to replace Netanyahu doesn't have any serious candidate for prime minister and in a situation like this, a government under [Yair] Lapid, even if it had the support of Ra'am, would be unstable and would collapse not long after it was formed. A government of the Netanyahu bloc, with him as leader, will be more stable and able to help up achieve the goals we have set for Arab society," he said.

The official added that "Even before we [Ra'am] split off from the Joint Arab List, we were excoriated for heading toward political unity, and we proved the opposite when the Arab public gave us the mandate and expressed their faith in the path we proposed. For 30 years we've tried the path of isolationism, and it hasn't gotten us anywhere. It's time for a change."

The anti-Netanyahu bloc is also courting Abbas' party, and he has met with Lapid, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, and Labor leader Merav Michaeli. Meanwhile, certain members of the Netanyahu bloc are opposing a deal with Ra'am, namely Religious Zionist list head Bezalel Smotrich, who is rejecting any coalition established through cooperation with Abbas.

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If Yamina leader Naftali Bennett decides to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, Netanyahu will be able to establish a right-wing government in the current Knesset, Netanyahu said Monday.

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"If we get to 59, we'll get to 61," Netanyahu said, referring to the minimum number of mandates he would need to form a government. The March 23 election resulted in 52 mandates for Netanyahu and seven for Bennett.

Netanyahu did not mention which other MKs from which parties would join the prospective government to give him the crucial 61 mandates.

The prime minister said there were few ways he could see the necessary boost from 59 to 61, but in order not to torpedo negotiations, he would not discuss them.

Netanyahu is concerned that Bennett might join the flank calling for his ouster, under the leadership of Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman, and New Hope leader Gideon Sa'ar. Netanyahu thinks that those three party leaders will offer Bennett a chance to become prime minister, with the backing of the left-wing parties and the abstention of the Joint Arab List.

On Monday, Netanyahu said in closed-door talks that this scenario would prove that his warnings leading up to the election that Bennett would join the Left were correct.

"Even with Bennett as leader, it wouldn't be a right-wing government, it would be a patched-together left-wing government that won't even last," Netanyahu said.

Meanwhile, Bennett is playing it close to the chest, and as of Monday was still not saying whether he was leaning toward forming a government with the anti-Netanyahu bloc or returning to the right-wing bloc in hope of helping form a government.

Sources close to Bennett denied Netanyahu's claims that the Yamina leader was considering forming a government that would depend on support from the Joint Arab List. Sources said that Netanyahu was in negotiations with former Joint Arab List member MK Mansour Abbas, whose Ra'am party split off and ran separately. The Bennett associates said that Abbas holds "radical nationalist positions" identical to those espoused by members of the Joint Arab List.

As part of the flurry of party meetings and contact on Monday, Abbas met with Lapid, and officials in Ra'am stressed that the party was not ruling out support for "any" candidate.

In the past few days, Ra'am has launched negotiations with the Likud, reportedly brokered by Shas leader Arye Deri.

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Ra'am is not revealing whom it intends to recommend as a candidate to form the next government, and it is possible that the party will abstain from recommending anyone to President Reuven Rivlin when he makes the decision about whom to tap.

Abbas said Monday, "We were and remain consistent the entire time. We are willing to talk to anyone who accepts our principles and will respond to our demands. There is much to do and handle in Arab society, first and foremost increasing crime, and that's what our constituency expects us to do. Therefore, we accept the mandate and the trust of the public who voted for us."

Ra'am is also not ruling out a fifth election as a way to solve the political impasse that has continued for nearly two years. But Abbas associate Ali Salam, mayor of Nazareth, said he thinks that if the choice boils down to a fifth election or supporting a government under Netanyahu, Ra'am would prefer to back a Netanyahu-led coalition.

"If we want to take part in the political game, we need to go with the person who's strongest and in power. A government under Lapid won't last. A government under Netanyahu will. He's the strongest, and we need to go with him," Salam said.

Rivlin is expected to begin consultations with political parties on their preferred candidate to try to form a government on April 5, a spokesman said Monday.

After hearing the parties' recommendations, Rivlin will assign the coalition-building task to one of the candidates by April 7.

While the Likud won the largest number of seats, Rivlin is under no legal obligation to task Netanyahu with putting together a government and can pick another candidate instead on the basis of the parties' recommendations.

Whoever Rivlin nominates will have up to 42 days to try to form an administration before the president assigns the task to someone else. If the second candidate fails, Rivlin can ask parliament to try to choose someone. If that proves unsuccessful, Israel will head into a fifth election.

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A computer system in use by the Likud Party crashed on Election Day, harming the party headquarters' work and reportedly costing Likud at least two seats that could have brought Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the 61 he needs to form a government, was over seen by Guy Benartzi, who is the nephew of Netanyahu's wife, Sara.

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Benartzi comes from the startup sector and co-founded Bancor, a company that deals with virtual currency.

Likud officials who were working with the system said the crash comprised a problem of unusual scope. These officials claimed that a few days before the March 23 election, the system had been tested, during which a number of problems were discovered. However, they said, because the person responsible for it was Netanyahu's nephew, officials were hesitant to express their concerns.

One Likud official involved in the computer failure told Israel Hayom that "Benartzi and his partners were responsible for the crash. They espoused pulling out of the Elector app and setting up a completely separate system. A few days before the election, they tested the system – and it crashed."

Other Likud officials confirmed that the system had been tested before March 23 and had worked, with the exception of minor problems "that they told us would be fixed."

These officials said that on the morning of Election Day "there was heavy use and the computer system was operating at 50% capacity until the afternoon. After that, everything worked perfectly."

According to the Likud, the system reported 3.2 million votes for Likud on Election Day, out of a potential 4 million Likud voters, a "knowledge gap" of some 800,000 votes that could in theory have secured more seats for the party.

Apart from the computer issues, sources in the Likud said that the drop in the party's number of seats since the March 2020 election occurred due to the Likud "donating" to Religious Zionist Party list leader Bezalel Smotrich by refraining from public attacked on him, and that other seats had moved from Netanyahu to Gideon Sa'ar and Naftali Benentt.

In recent days, the Likud party leadership has been asking for a probe into the system failure. No such probe has yet been approved.

When approached about the computer problem, the Likud responded in a statement that the party does not comment on campaign activity. "However, we will clarify that despite the claims, all the Likud oversight systems were operating successfully on Election Day," the party said.

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If anything unites all party leaders after the results of this week's election for the 24^th Knesset, it is the hope of gaining the support of Yamina leader Naftali Bennett.

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Bennett, who throughout the campaign tried to position himself to tip the scales, is now able to do just that, with neither side in possession of enough mandates to form a government without him. Incidentally, there's no guarantee that there will be a government even after he joins a side, but without him, there definitely won't be.

The Yamina leader is facing a difficult decision. A few officials from Gideon Sa'ar's New Hope party, Blue and White, and even Labor and Meretz, are saying that the desire to oust Netanyahu is stronger than any other aspiration, so they would agree to support Bennett – who is farther to the Right than Netanyahu – as prime minister. It would be hard for any politician to turn down an offer to be prime minister.

But the price might be too high. If Bennett were to accept their offer, the government would depend on members of the Joint Arab List. It's not certain Bennett is willing to accept that, as it would mean cutting himself off from the Right. Such a government would be mostly left-wing, especially in civil and legal areas, and would be unlikely to remain in power for long. It took Bennett a long time to throw off the "alliance" he once made with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, an alliance that did serious damage to his right-wing base, and it's not certain he's willing to set out on a similar adventure now.

But the alternative isn't terribly attractive, either. If Bennett joins a Netanyahu government, he can have his choice of ministerial portfolios, but Netanyahu would remain prime minister. The same Netanyahu who went after him for months, made videos about him, and waged a propaganda war to weaken him – and succeeded. The same Netanyahu who also chose not to bring him into the coalition.

What's more, Bennett jointing Netanyahu and the right-wing bloc won't secure the necessary majority of mandate. It would bring the bloc to 59, no more. In that case, there would be room for creative solutions such as bringing in Sa'ar, MKs who defect from other parties, or Ra'am abstaining, but none of these would be easy, and we cannot know if they will work. In the meantime, if Bennett announces that he's joining Netanyahu, he will be "burned" in the eyes of the people who want to replace the prime minister, who already suspect Bennett of being "in his pocket."

A battle is now underway for the ear of the president, and the Likud has to wait. If Bennett recommends himself as prime minister or does not recommend anyone else, Lapid might have more votes than Netanyahu. In this case, Netanyahu wouldn't insist on being given the first mandate, because he would have nothing to do with it. As long as Bennett is on the fence, Netanyahu's options will open only when the other side tries and fails. But the other side could also succeed.

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Blue and White was furious with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid on Tuesday evening after Yesh Atid allegedly sent out text messages signed Benny Gantz. The messages said that Blue and White was gaining traction and no longer in danger of not passing the minimum electoral threshold of 3.25%, and therefore voters should cast ballots to strengthen Yesh Atid.

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The message read: "Gantz: We are gaining strength and have over six seats, and we are definitely out of danger. When the parties in the bloc are out of danger, now is the times to decide and vote for Yesh Atid. A strong Yesh Atid is the only key to replacing the Netanyahu government."

Lapid also tweeted that "according to the situation rooms of the parties in his bloc, all the parties were growing. "Now we need a large Yesh Atid if we want to replace the government. The discussion of who will pass [the minimum threshold] and who won't is over, the discussion now is about how we replace the government with a big Yesh Atid."

Blue and White said in response: "After he abandoned the bloc and didn't worry about alliances, Lapid has started to send out fake news. It doesn't matter if Lapid has 20 or 22 seats – it does matter if Blue and White doesn't make it past the minimum threshold, and there will be nobody to stop Bibi's one-man rule in a transition government."

Blue and White also said: "The public has to know that if Blue and White or Meretz do not make it over the minimum threshold, there is a real danger that Netanyahu will have 61 seats and a government that will give him immunity. A ballot for Yesh Atid is a ballot for Bibi."

The party's election headquarters sent out instructions to its MKs, candidates, and all activists to keep fighting for every single vote to ensure that the party made it past the minimum threshold and into the Knesset. Blue and White was also making intensive preparations to oversee the vote count. Gantz himself was out on Dizengoff St. in Tel Aviv Tuesday evening, urging the public to vote.

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With fewer than five hours to go before polls close, Yamina was outraged on Tuesday over what they called a "gevald" (scare) campaign by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bolster the Religious Zionist Party at Yamina's expense.

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Yamina was responding to a mass text messaging campaign by the Likud, calling to vote for the Religious Zionist Party, which has been hovering near the minimum electoral threshold of 3.25% in polls. The message encouraged undecided voters to support the Religious Zionist Party, rather than the Likud.

Yamina leader Naftali Bennett said in a Twitter response: "Don't allow Bibi to fool you again. In an attempt to weaken us, he is once again spreading the complete lie that the Smotrich-Ben-Gvir-Noam party is in danger. Completely fake. Bibi is doing it just because he wants a submissive Right in his pocket."

In the last polls before the election, published Friday, Bezalel Smotrich's list was projected to make it over the minimum threshold and win four to five seats. Still, Netanyahu is concerned that the party will not make it over the minimum threshold, which would seriously hurt his chances of securing the 61 seats he needs to build a stable coalition.

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As the voting in Israel's fourth election in under two years ended at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, exit polls showed Likud in the lead with 31 seats, putting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu within reach of securing the 61 mandates necessary to form a government – providing that Yamina leader Naftali Bennett rejoins the right-wing bloc.

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Shortly after the exit polls were released, Bennett said, "I will only do what is good for the State of Israel." He did not elaborate further.

Public broadcaster Kan 11 News projected the following results:

According to this poll, the Arab Ra'am party and the Economic party failed to cross the four-seat electoral threshold.

The public broadcaster thus gave the right-wing bloc 54 seats, and the Center-Left bloc 59 seats, with Yamina as the party that can change the balance of power in the next government.

Channel 12 News predicted the following results:

Here, too, Ra'am and the Economic party failed to cross the electoral threshold.

Israel's largest commercial broadcaster gave the right-wing bloc 53 seats, and the Center-Left bloc 59 seats, naming Yamina as the party that could decide the fate of the elections.

Channel 13 News gave the following results:

Here, too, Ra'am and the Economic party did not make it into the 24th Knesset.

The outlet echoed Kan's results, predicting 54 mandates for the right-wing bloc and 59 for the Center-Left, with Yamina as the swing faction.

On average, the combined exit polls yielded the following projections:

The results put both blocs within reach of cobbling together a coalition – as long as Yamina joins one of them. However, as Bennett has vowed not to join a government led by Netanyahu or by Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid, it is unclear where the national-religious party is headed.

The fact that Ra'am failed to enter parliament also deals a blow to both political blocs, as it, too, could have shifted the balance of power in either direction, although to a lesser extent.

Central Elections Committee Head Attorney Orly Adas said on Tuesday morning that the results of the elections may not be clear until Friday, adding that the final results will only be available next week.

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President Reuven Rivlin met with the new UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland in Jerusalem on Sunday and congratulated him on his new position, telling Wennesland he wa "happy" to continue the good coordination he had with the previous head of UNSCO, Nikolay Mladenov.

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The two discussed the current regional challenges and the various needs raised by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the important opportunities the Abraham Accords offer the peoples of the region, the president's spokesperson said in a statement.

The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, formerly known as UNSCO, represents the United Nations in all diplomatic efforts in regards to the Middle East. The international body also coordinates the humanitarian work of various UN agencies in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Last year, Israel embraced the Abraham Accords, a normalization peace treaty brokered by former US President Donald Trump, as well as four Arab nations in the Middle East and North Africa.

Israeli leaders have noted that the landmark normalizations do not hamper efforts to reignite the peace process with the Palestinians, with Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi last week calling on the Palestinian Authority to return to the negotiation table with no preconditions.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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