All About Iran: Declaring victory after a slim win, Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel?s biggest challenge remains preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Image by getty images

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an election victory speech on Wednesday, said preventing a nuclear-armed Iran would be the primary challenge facing the new government he intends to form.

“I am proud to be your prime minister, and I thank you for giving me the opportunity, for the third time, to lead the state of Israel,” he told a cheering crowd at the campaign headquarters of his right-wing Likud party.

Exit polls showed Likud, allied with the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, emerging from Tuesday’s vote as still the biggest bloc in the 120-member parliament, with 31 seats, despite a drop in their support and a surprise surge by a new centrist party.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Netanyahu said he intended to form as broad a governing coalition as possible, suggesting he would go beyond a traditional alliance with other right-wing and religious partners.

“The first challenge was and remains preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,” he said in his speech.

Netanyahu has called Tehran’s nuclear programme an existential threat to Israel and has stoked international concern by hinted strongly at possible Israeli military action to stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb.

He has said that by the summer, Iran may reach a level of uranium enrichment that would enable it to move rapidly towards building a nuclear weapon.

Iran, which has been hit by Western sanctions over its nuclear activities, says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes only.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount