Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday emerged victorious after the nation’s third election in a year, despite a looming corruption trial, dismaying the Palestinians who were angered by his hardline campaign pledges.
Monday’s election left the veteran right-winger in prime position to form a government and end a year of political deadlock, after similar votes in April and September last year proved inconclusive.
The central election committee said it had counted 90 percent of the vote, with breakdowns of the result in the media showing Netanyahu’s Likud party with 36 seats in the 120-member parliament.
Photo: AFP
That would mark the party’s best-ever result under Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and its first to be indicted in office.
Netanyahu’s bloc, which includes Orthodox Jewish parties, is likely still one or two votes short of a majority, but his party spokesman said it was confident of luring defectors.
Likud’s main challenger, the centrist Blue and White party, was projected to win 32 seats.
Counting its center-left allies, as well as the mainly Arab Joint List alliance, the anti-Netanyahu camp was expected to control 54 to 55 seats.
While there remains no guarantee that Netanyahu can form a coalition, he hailed Monday’s election as a “giant” success.
“This is the most important victory of my life,” he told supporters in Tel Aviv, where people danced, sang and shouted “Bibi, king of Israel,” using the prime minister’s nickname.
Netanyahu campaigned on his tough position toward the Palestinians and on expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
He also pledged to annex the Jordan Valley, a key part of the West Bank that Palestinian see as crucial for their future state, if he won.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the exit polls showed that “settlement, annexation and apartheid had won.”
Blue and White’s leader, former military chief Benny Gantz, admitted “disappointment” with the result.
However, he stressed that regardless of the final tally Netanyahu is still due to go on trial on March 17 after being charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
“In two weeks, he will be in court,” Gantz said.
While Netanyahu will likely be tapped by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to form a government, he has no immediate path to a 61-seat majority.
The projections indicate that the secular, nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party won six or seven seats and might again be able to play kingmaker, the same position it was in following the April and September votes.
Party leader Avigdor Lieberman served as defense minister in a previous Netanyahu government and his support would easily put Likud over the crucial 61-seat line.
However, after the September vote, Lieberman said he would only join a government of national unity — ruling out cooperation with the Orthodox parties allied to Netanyahu and the Arab camp that backed Gantz.
“There is no choice but to wait for the final results and only then conduct a situation assessment,” Lieberman said after the exit polls were released.
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