Bibi On The Brink

[Cow Poke]

Results uncertain, Netanyahu

We should know soon.

Exit polls are split, with Channel 12 giving Blue and White a four-seat advantage over Likud; others have two parties neck-and-neck; both leaders declare victory

bibi.jpg

[Cow Poke]

And it's weird...

While none of the exit polls carried out during Israel's general election Tuesday showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party in the lead, that does not mean he won't be able to form the next government.

Either party will have to secure the support of other smaller parties to form a governing majority in the 120-seat parliament.

Two exit polls showed Netanyahu on track to form Israel's next government, with support from the religious right. A third poll showed results too close to call.

Israeli Channel 12 showed Benny Gantz's Blue and White party virtually neck and neck with Likud, with the religious-right coalition taking 60 seats and Gantz's coalition taking the same, with support of the Arab parties.

Kan Channel 11 showed the religious-right coalition with 64 seats, versus a Gantz bloc with 56. And Channel 13 projected the religious-right wing coalition with 66 seats, 12 more than a Gantz coalition.

No party ever ends up with an outright majority after elections, and these results are just preliminary. Both men may end up with a chance to form a government, and the smaller parties will play a key role in coalition-building.

However it is extremely unlikely that the Arab parties would become full coalition partners in any government.

[rogue06]

Source: GANTZ VS. NETANYAHU: BOTH CLAIM VICTORY AMID SPLIT EXIT POLLS

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz each declared that they won Tuesday's election after inconclusive exit polls were broadcast on the three Israeli networks.

Netanyahu claimed victory, because his Right-Center bloc won handily over Gantz's Center-Left bloc in polls broadcast on Channel 13 and KAN, 66 to 54 and 64 to 56, respectively. In Channel 12's poll, the blocs were even at 60 seats.
"The right-wing bloc led by Likud clearly won," Netanyahu said. "I thank Israeli citizens for their trust. I will begin forming a right-wing government with our natural partners already tonight."

Gantz announced that he won the race, because in the Channel 12 poll, Blue and White received 37 seats and Likud 33. In the KAN poll, the victory margin was 37 to 36. The Channel 13 poll found the two parties even at 36.

“We won!" Gantz and his number two Yair Lapid said in a joint statement. "The Israeli public has had their say! Thank you to the thousands of activists and over a million voters. These elections have a clear winner and a clear loser. Netanyahu promised 40 seats and lost. The president can see the picture and should call on the winner to form the next government. There is no other option!”

The surprise of the election ended up being that former Likud MK Moshe Feiglin's Zehut party did not cross the 3.25% threshold, according to the exit polls. But party officials said their supporters did not cooperate with the exit polls and the results in the ballot box would be very different.


Source

© Copyright Original Source

In general the turnout was low but the fact that it was especially low among Arabs has some pundits predicting bad news for Gantz.

[Cow Poke]

So, it sounds like they have a similar "our people didn't cooperate with the polling" factor.

[Cow Poke]

I didn't realize that GLBTQXYZ was an issue in this election...

Blue and White supporters were ecstatic over their party's performance in the election. One supporter, 43-year-old Zehorit, hailed the result's potential impact on LGBT rights. But another, 32-year-old Ido, cautioned that other exit polls were still too close to call.

Zehorit, 43 (holding the rainbow flag): “We won, this means finally equality for LGBT in Israel! I feel that I am an equal citizen in Israel now.”

[Cow Poke]

Hmmmm

Netanyahu lauds his ‘incredible victory’ as revised exit polls augur clear win

Adjusted samples suggest Likud ahead with 35 seats, compared to Blue and White’s 34, and easily able to build majority coalition.

Netanyahu says he’ll form right-wing government, but will be PM for all.

Netanyahu says Israel, under his leadership, is strong, prosperous and “a good place to live.”

Even as he declares his win, Netanyahu also counsels patience until all the ballots are counted.

“A long night, maybe a long day, is still ahead of us and we will wait for the final results,” says Netanyahu.

Netanyahu says he is contact with right-wing parties, “our natural partners.”

“Nearly all of them have publicly declared that they will recommend that I form the next government,” he says.

“It will be a right-wing government. But I intend to be the prime minister of all of Israel, right and left, Jews and non-Jews alike.”

[Mountain Man]

Exit polling is notoriously unreliable. Remember Democrats celebrating Hillary's victory early on election day only to be reduced to tears when the actual votes were counted.

[rogue06]

As of 3 AM here and with 97% of the vote counted it is tied.

[Sparko]

[Cow Poke]

According to Vox Benjamin Netanyahu won Israel’s election.

The preliminary results from Israel’s Tuesday election have Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party getting 35 seats out of a total 120 seats in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament). While Likud didn’t win an outright majority of seats, that’s typical in Israeli elections.

Party leaders generally become prime ministers by cobbling together a parliamentary majority with the help of smaller parties. In this case, a group of smaller right-wing parties expected to back Netanyahu seems to have captured 65 seats, enough to give him a 10 seat majority over the rival center-left bloc (the exact numbers could change as the remaining two percent of votes are tallied).

Netanyahu is now set to be the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history — even longer than David Ben-Gurion, the country’s first prime minister often described as “Israel’s George Washington.” And the ramifications of his fifth term could be enormous, both for the health of Israeli democracy and the fate of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

[Mountain Man]

Source: Israel's Netanyahu wins reelection with parliamentary majority - tally

JERUSALEM, April 10 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured a clear path to reelection on Wednesday, with religious-rightist parties set to hand him a parliamentary majority despite a close contest against his main centrist challenger, a vote tally showed.

With more than 97 percent of votes counted, Netanyahu's conservative Likud party looked likely to muster enough support to control 65 of the Knesset's 120 seats and be named to head the next coalition government - a record fifth term as premier.

The close and often vitriolic contest was widely seen in Israel as a referendum on Netanyahu's character and record in the face of corruption allegations. He faces possible indictment in three graft cases, and has denied wrongdoing in all of them.

Despite that, Netanyahu gained four seats compared to his outgoing coalition government, according to a spreadsheet published by the Central Elections Committee of parties that won enough votes to enter the next parliament.

http://news.trust.org/item/20190410080103-h7ruo

© Copyright Original Source

[mossrose]

I wonder if there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and screams of "not my Prime Minister"........

[Cow Poke]

I wonder if there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and screams of "not my Prime Minister"........

Speaking of which, I see your TrueDough guy is sinking in the polls.

[mossrose]

Speaking of which, I see your TrueDough guy is sinking in the polls.

Yes. Praying the momentum continues until the election in October.

[Cow Poke]

Israel Election: Gantz Concedes Defeat, Lapid Vows to Turn Knesset Into Battlefield

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has all but secured a 5th term on Wednesday morning, after more than 95 percent of the votes gave the right-wing bloc a 10-seat lead over the left.

Netanyahu's Likud tied with Benny Gantz's Kahol Lavan party with 35 seats each. Both leaders made victory speeches after the exit polls, vowing to be "everyone's prime minister."

But almost all right-wing parties have said they would recommend to the president that Netanyahu form the next ruling coalition. Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked's Hayamin Hehadash, as well as the far-right Zehut party led by Moshe Feiglin and Orly Levi-Abekasis' Gesher did not make it past the electoral threshold.

In the right-wing bloc, the parties that made it into the Knesset are Likud, United Torah Judaism, Shas, Yisrael Beiteinu, Right-wing Union and Kulanu. In the center-left bloc, the parties that made it into the Knesset are Kahol Lavan, Hadash-Ta'al, Labor, Meretz and United Arab List-Balad.