Israeli elections: Jewish Power is in as Arab parties see a fall in support

After decades in the political wilderness of Israeli politics, an Israeli far-right party is set to enter the parliament for the first time.

Supported by Benjamin Netenyahu, Jewish Power could see itself gaining up to five members in the Israeli parliament as the party is called.

One of the party's leaders, in particular, has grabbed headlines. The 44-year-old Itamar Ben-Gvir, and leader of the party, will enter parliament for the first time, and his past statements are facing even more scrutiny.

Ben-Gvir, who lives with his wife and five kids in the occupied Palestinian city of Hebron, was unpalatable even for the Israeli army who exempted him from mandatory service for his extreme far-right views.

In 2016 he backed segregation between Jewish and Arab women in the maternity wards.

"It's only natural my wife would not want to lie next to someone who just gave birth to a baby that might murder her baby in another 20 years," he wrote on Twitter.

A follower of the late extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, Ben-Gvir has been referred to as a "Kahanist." The Rabbi, who was assassinated in 1990 in New York, believed that "every Arab who has sexual relations with a Jewish woman" should be sent to prison.

The Arab man, Kahane believed, could seduce a Jewish woman and thereby pollute the Jewish race's purity.

Kahane's anti-Arab stance was the main pillar of his political platform, seeking that the remaining Palestinians within Israel's 1967 borders should be expelled and non-Jews can't obtain Israeli citizenship.

In 1988, the Jewish-supremacist politician, Kahane, was suspended from the Israeli parliament after threatening a Palestinian parliamentarian by brandishing a hangman's noose.

Ben-Gvir hails from this political tradition of Jewish politics, and it's one that some fear Netenyahu has legitimised by giving it the necessary backing to enter parliament.

The pulpit of Israel's parliament and perhaps even entering into a coalition with Netanyahu could give the party unprecedented power and legitimacy in Israel.

Netanyahu's Likud party and its ultra-Orthodox and far-right allies fell just short of a 61-seat majority with more than 90 percent of the votes counted.

This is the fourth time Israelis have gone to the polls in two years as Netanyahu seeks to cling on to an unprecedented sixth term as Prime Minister with corruption allegations and an open investigation hovers over his political future.

That hasn't stopped Israli's from voting for him in their droves, albeit just short of giving him a ruling majority.

While most of Israel's main parties have ruled out joining a coalition with Netanyahu, a small Palestinian party hasn't ruled it out and could become a kingmaker.

The head of the Ra'am party, Mansour Abbas, has decided to keep his cards close to his chest. But that silver lining, however, saw a broader fall in Arab representation in parliament.

The Join List, a coalition of Arab-Palestinian parties, achieved a historic number of seats in last years' March elections, giving them 15 members.

That achievement built on the 2019 success of 13 seats. Now all that seems to have come to a stuttering halt, with the Join List achieving only 11 seats.

A sigh of relief followed the announcement of the result by the Join List as their election campaign was marred by infighting and voter apathy about whether their representatives could achieve anything in such a right-wing leaning parliament.

One Joint Liste representative warned that after the dust settles, there will need to be a period of "soul searching" why the Arab-Palestinian voter turnout dropped by more than 15 percent.

The Ra'am party is also at odds with the Join List, which could set up both sides for a showdown and benefit Netanyahu.

On the whole, Israel's political scene is set for a continued deadlock period as the Israeli electorate delivers another uncertain answer to politicians and extremist political parties.