Violence will flare up in the West Bank after Benjamin Netanyahu's victory

Jerusalem/Washington: Benjamin Netanyahu is confirmed to become the Prime Minister of Israel again after his success in the Israeli elections. While world leaders were congratulating Netanyahu for this, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid to thank him for his cooperation. At the same time, the US Secretary of State expressed concern that the violence in the West Bank of Palestine will increase. Due to this, it appears that Israel’s relations with the US will be strained again during Netanyahu’s tenure.

Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his allied political parties won a majority in Israel’s general election two days ago. Netanyahu and the allied parties have registered a win over 64 out of 120 seats in the Israeli Parliament. Moreover, the party of retiring Prime Minister Lapid and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett could win only 51 seats. After this victory, Netanyahu will be holding the responsibility of the Prime Minister of Israel for the fifth time.

But before that, Hamas, a terrorist organisation in the Gaza Strip, expressed displeasure over Netanyahu’s victory. Gaza Strip launched rockets towards Israel on Thursday night. Israel’s Iron Dome systems deployed at the Gaza border intercepted half of these rockets, while some collapsed into the open space within Israel’s borders. There was no loss of life. But within the next few hours, Israel’s military launched missile attacks on Hamas positions in Gaza. In this, the Israeli army claimed to have destroyed the underground base of Hamas. Therefore, Hamas has warned that attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip will increase in the coming times.

Allies and leaders congratulated Netanyahu on announcing the election results in Israel. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban were at the forefront. The leaders of European countries like Greece, Poland, Romania and Austria also congratulated Netanyahu. Ukrainian President Zelensky, struggling with Russia for the past eight months, also wished Israel’s future PM on social media. Also, he expressed expectations of cooperation from Netanyahu.

While world leaders were congratulating Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the retiring Prime Minister Yair Lapid to thank him for his cooperation. At the same time, the US foreign minister warned that the tension in the West Bank would increase in the coming period and flare up violence and kill Israelis and Palestinians. Blinken said all parties needed to come together to stop the violence in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, Biden’s administration is not interested in having an aggressive leader like Netanyahu back as Israel’s Prime Minister. There are clear indications that Israel will again adopt an aggressive stance against Iran during his tenure. Hence, the US Secretary of State spoke over the phone with retiring Prime Minister Lapid instead of holding talks with Netanyahu. This signals that the Biden administration will take steps to increase pressure on Netanyahu’s government in the future.

The Former Ambassador of the United States has said there might be a reaction from the United States on the selection of some leaders in Netanyahu’s government.