Originally appeared at ZeroHedge
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared victory in the nation’s general election held on Monday, but still lacks a clear majority to form a ruling coalition in Israel’s third vote after two prior gridlocked elections.
“We won by believing in our own way and by the people of Israel,” Netanyahu stated immediately after. But he’s still two seats short of a ruling majority, as Reuters reports of the results:
With some 90 percent of the votes counted, Netanyahu, who has the pledged support of right-wing and religious parties for a coalition government, appeared to control 59 seats in parliament, two short of a ruling majority.
The gap made former defense minister Avigdor Lieberman’s far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party a potential kingmaker after remaining on the sidelines in inconclusive ballots in April and September.
Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party gained just over 31% of the vote, followed by the opposition Blue and White party of Benny Gantz with over 23%, and with The Joint List, the alliance of Israel’s Arab political parties, with 11.60 percent.
However, Gantz stopped short of immediately conceding defeat, but noted his supporters’ “feeling of disappointment and pain” amid what could be another gridlock situation that has plagued Israeli politics for the past year.
Not only did Netanyahu extend his political career but saved himself from significant legal trouble as well, given he was shortly to go on trial for corruption — with only a win as prime minister that could keep him immune.
Israeli and international media are noting it’s a huge “comeback unseen in Israeli politics” for the embattled prime minister. As The Guardian reports Tuesday:
Adding to his woes, the timing of Monday’s election – held just two weeks before a scheduled court appearance in Jerusalem – could not have been worse.
Yet as the votes were being counted on Tuesday, it seemed Netanyahu, who denies all the charges, had somehow regained his swagger. While it remains unclear if he can form a government, or if the country is doomed to remain in political stasis, his ruling Likud party appears to be on track to win a significant number of seats and more than any other faction.
Writing in the often pro-Netanyahu newspaper, Israel Hayom, commentator Mati Tuchfeld said the result was “a comeback unseen in Israeli politics”.
Via AFP: ‘What a joyous night,’ a beaming Netanyahu told a cheering crowd in a speech at Likud’s election headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu, setting his sights on the next phase of building a coalition with his defeated rival Benny Gantz, said “It’s time for reconciliation”.
Gantz, for his part, in addressing supporters after the vote remained ambiguous on if he would agree to a coalition with Likud.
Concerning the impact of Netanyahu’s legal woes and corruption charges, The Guardian noted further that “voters either do not believe the corruption allegations, or they do not care. In this respect, there are parallels with some of Trump’s supporters in the US, who either refuse to believe or are happy to downplay criticism of his conduct.”
Not for long, after counting 99% of the votes it seems that he didn’t get most seats in the end! Great news, we still have hope!
That is a ray of hope. I was beginning to think he was blackmailing God. Please Keep me updated if more updates come to you. Cheers.
No problem Melanson, he needs to go for just making deals with Hamas even without his corruption.
Probably final results : Bibi 58 and Gantz 62. If it stays like that, Gantz can pass a law against Bibi so he would be forced to resign. Fingers crossed!
Same position as previous elections. Has to beg for a coalition.
I campaigned for him furiously and it caused me my sanity. Imagine it’s effect on Israeli society… They know him for a long time, know his corruption, know his inabilities, lies, cheats, the whole thing, yet he manages to win a third of all votes. Says more about Israelis than anything else.
A long time ago, before the dissolution of USSR there was something called “left” and another extinct creature named “center” in Israeli politics and they compete with right and with each other. Soviet Jews (the phenomenon you may know as the “Russian Mafia”) created Likud and own it. The type of politician that comes out of this party have their loyalties somewhere else and treat their country as a business for the aforementioned Russian mob. They turned Israeli politics from a nuanced spectrum of left~right into ultra far right and ultra very far right, something nobody thought was possible!
Why I campaigned for him, you ask. You know some [Israeli] people here hate his guts and you may feel warmth towards them? You know why? They think he did not kill enough Palestinians, did not bomb Syria enough and did not grab enough land. Besides, as long as he’s busy about his criminal cases his attention goes into saving himself, not bad, eh? He owes me directly at least 11 votes, not counting how many others those 11 managed to get. Do you think he’ll send me my shekels he owes from the public funds?
Your story doesn’t makes sense because Israel doesn’t have overseas voting You have to be physically in Israel or Palestine to be able to be vote
But I agree, Netanyahu is as bad to Israel as Ahmedinajad was to you guys the Iranians
I know it doesn’t, everybody here knows I’m Iranian. Either there are ways to do what I wrote or I lied.
Seems we are in complete agreement.
He was indicted and under investigation how the hell is he not in jail by now?
LOOOL! The moronic police state is now officially a dictatorship. Only sham elections can fail to get rid of Bibi the brainless. Most “democratically” elected morons are actually elected by Google. Whilst internet is wonderful in many ways, it has completely destroyed western so-called democracy. It is a sham at present time and carries zero credibility.