Netanyahu Claims Unprecedented Election Fraud as End Nears

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday made his first public appearance since last week’s announcement by former Opposition Leader Yair Lapid that he had succeeded in forming a new government. “We are witnessing the worst election scam in the history of our country, perhaps even in the history of democracy, I have people checking that,” a distraught Netanyahu accused in a televised speech. “This government will not be able to stand up to American’s desire to return to the Iran nuclear deal, which will give Iran atomic bombs with which to threaten us. It’s a threat to our national security,” he warned Sunday night. Earlier, Naftali Bennett, the designated prime minister in the unity government set to be sworn in next week, in a televised speech accused Netanyahu of overseeing a “violent, well-oiled slander machine” and of harassing and threatening his colleagues. “Netanyahu, just let go,” he implored the longest-serving premier in Israeli history. “An administration change is not a catastrophe … don’t leave a scorched earth,” Bennett also said.