“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party on Thursday released an English-language statement in which it committed to a peaceful transfer of power in Israel, if indeed a new government not led by Netanyahu is sworn in next week. This is the first time the party has publicly addressed the issue since Yair Lapid announced last week that he has succeeded to form a coalition. The statement, which wasn’t published in Hebrew, came a day after CNN aired a segment comparing Netanyahu’s reaction to the results of the last election, the fourth in two years, to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s challenge of his election loss in 2020. The segment was titled ‘Netanyahu ripping a page from Trump’s playbook.’ The Likud statement seemed like a direct response to the CNN segment, in which quotes by Trump and Netanyahu were aired one after the other, highlighting the similarities between them. ‘When PM Netanyahu speaks about ‘election fraud’ he isn’t referring to the vote counting process in Israel in which he has complete confidence,’ the party claimed. ‘There is also no question about the peaceful transition of power'” – Haaretz.