Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clinched a clear victory early Wednesday morning in Israel’s general elections.
With some 97 percent of votes in Tuesday’s contest counted, his Likud party was tied with Blue and White, but his right-wing/ultra-Orthodox bloc held a decisive lead and Netanyahu was thus safely en route to forming a majority governing coalition.
With more than four million votes counted as of 9 a.m., Likud had snagged 26.27% of the vote, or 35 seats in the 120-seat legislature — the party’s best result since the 2003 election (when it won 38 seats under Ariel Sharon), and its best under Netanyahu.
Likud’s main rival in the election, the Blue and White party led by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, won 25.94% of the vote, which would also give it 35 seats, but had insufficient support from other parties to prevent Netanyahu staying in power for what will be a fifth term.
In actual numbers, only some 14,000 votes separated the two biggest parties.
No other party appeared to break double digits in number of seats.
With his Likud at 35, and five right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties managing to get some 30 seats together, Netanyahu could confidently work to form a government similar to his current right-wing coalition, with a solid 65 seats.
On the other side of the fence, four left-wing and Arab parties combined for just 20 seats, putting them en route to the opposition along with Blue and White.
Coming in at a surprising third and fourth places behind Likud and Blue and White were the ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism, with 6.10% (8 seats) and 5.90% (8 seats) respectively.
Fifth was the predominantly Arab Hadash-Ta’al with 4.61% or six seats.
The historically dominant Labor Party crashed to sixth place with 4.46% (six seats), the party’s worst showing in its 71-year history.
With five seats each were Yisrael Beytenu (with 4.15%) and the Union of Right-Wing Parties (3.66%).
Meanwhile Meretz (3.64%), Kulanu (3.56%) and Arab party Ra’am-Balad (3.45%) had four seats each.
The Times of Israel is liveblogging fallout from Israel’s election as it unfolds.
President’s consultations with parties in preparation for coalition’s formation to be broadcast live
President Reuven Rivlin has ordered that the consultations that he’ll begin holding with the various parties next week in order to form the next government will be broadcast live for all Israelis on multiple platforms.
The decision was made in order to promote transparency, the Walla news site reports.
During these meetings, parties will provide the president with their recommendations of who they think should form the next coalition.
Netanyahu is expected to be the candidate who will receive the most recommendations.
‘Good job, my friend,’ Italian interior minister tells Netanyahu in a congratulatory tweet
Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini congratulates Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his decisive electoral victory.
“Good job to my friend Bibi Netanyahu and a hug to the people of Israel,” Salvini tweets.
PLO official: Results show Israel said no to peace, yes to occupation
Senior PLO official Saeb Erakat says Tuesday’s election results show that Israelis “have said no to peace and yes to the occupation.”
Dr.Saeb Erakat:
What the early results suggest is that Israelis have voted to preserve the status quo,they have said no to peace and yes to the occupation. The fact that only 14 out of 120 elected members of the Israeli parliament support the two state solution on the 1967.
With strong right-wing electoral showing, settler leaders declare death of Palestinian state
The Yesha settlement umbrella council announces the death of the era of the Palestinian state following the strong showing for the right along with the collapse of factions on the left.
“This morning we can say with certainty: In the face of all the campaigns and manipulations, the people of Israel chose the right. The people expressed their loyalty to the Land of Israel and chose in favor of applying Israeli sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley,” says the Yesha Council.
“We congratulate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his election, and look forward to the establishment of a strong and broad right-wing government. In the next Knesset, too, we will continue to build, expand, legalize and jointly develop Israeli communities in the region.”
In the end, the combined might of three former Israeli army chiefs proved no match for the political will of Benjamin Netanyahu.
A divisive force of nature who commandeered the airwaves, took over the vegetable markets, monopolized social media and even called potential voters out of the sea at Netanya beach on election day, Netanyahu simply refused to be beaten.
He had help. President Donald Trump gifted him the sensationally timed US recognition of Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights late last month, and the branding of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Force as a terror group this week. President Vladimir Putin pitched in with Russia’s return of the remains of Zachary Baumel, 37 years after the Brooklyn-born IDF tank commander’s death in the Lebanon War.
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