You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Benjamin Netanyahu defeats Benny Gantz with larger bloc
2020-03-03
Updating this story from yesterday.
[JPost] The final voter turnout was 71% - up from 69.8% in the previous election.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeeded in winning 60 seats for his bloc of right-wing and religious parties in Monday's election, one less than he needed for a majority in the Knesset, according to exit polls on the three television networks.

The first polls indicated that Netanyahu's Likud won 36-37 seats. Its allies in Shas, UTJ and Yamina won 9, 7-8 and 6-7 respectively. The polls showed Blue and White with 33 seats, its ally Labor-Gesher-Meretz 6-7, the Joint List 14-15 and Yisrael Beytenu 6-8.

When Channel 13 updated its numbers at around 1 a.m. Israel time, Gantz gained one seat to 34 and the blocs shifted slightly, leaving the right-wing with only 59 seats.

Channel 12 also updated its numbers, giving Likud 37 seats, Blue and White 32, Arab Joint List 15, Shas 9, Yisrael Beytenu 7, UTJ 7, Labor-Gesher-Meretz 7 and Yamina 6.

The numbers are expected to change overnight. The votes of soldiers, who tend to lean to the right, have not yet been counted and the Joint List tends to go down a seat when the soldiers' votes are added. But, if the Right does not obtain its 61st seat, it could end up being because the far-right Otzma Yehudit refused Netanyahu's repeated requests to quit the race.

60 seats for Netanyahu
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

Likud HQ goes wild when exit polls come out. Subtitles unnecessary
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

For those interested in inside baseball, The Times of Israel is live-blogging the vote count here.
Posted by:Frank G

#4  36 seats for Likud, leading.
Posted by: Dron66046   2020-03-03 13:32  

#3  Netanyahu wins! Perfect (for so many reasons). :-D
Posted by: Barbara   2020-03-03 13:23  

#2  Look at 0bama.

And you did good Israel
Posted by: newc   2020-03-03 01:28  

#1  Now, we must investigate where Blue & White got its funding!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2020-03-03 00:15  

00:00