Closing summary
We will now bring to a close our coverage of the Israeli election, with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly deep in talks with ultra-Orthodox and right-wing parties to form a coalition. Thanks for reading.
- With 97% of votes counted, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud is marginally ahead of Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party. Though both parties appear set to win 35 seats each, Likud have 26.27% of the vote so far, while Gantz’s centrists have 25.95%.
- This leaves both parties well short of being able to form a majority government. However, Netanyahu appears best placed to form a government since the right-wing and religious parties appear to have won more seats than the Arab, centre and left parties.
- Potential kingmaker, the right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman has ruled out recommending Gantz as the next prime minister. However, he stopped short of aligning himself with Netanyahu at this stage. Liberman quit as defense minister in November, criticising what he said was “the continued capitulation to terrorism” and citing “disagreements regarding the policy toward Hamas and the Gaza Strip”.
- Netanyahu’s office said he was deep in talks with ultra-Orthodox and other right-wing parties to form a coalition early on Wednesday, the Times of Israel reported
- Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurtz and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi were the first world leaders to congratulate Netanyahu, with Kurtz paying tribute to how the Israeli prime minister “gained the trust of the people of Israel in record numbers”.
- After the final three percent of votes are counted – which include those from diplomats and soldiers – the president will ask one of the party leaders to try to form a government. This is not necessarily the party with the most votes, but the one most likely to be able to win support of other parties to form a government.
- Earlier in the night both Netanyahu and Gantz claimed victory, with Gantz saying: “We are the ones who won” and Netanyahu declaring it was: “a night of tremendous victory”.
- If Netanyahu is able to secure a victory, this summer he will become Israel’s longest-ever serving leader. Re-election would also give him an important boost as he braces for the likelihood of criminal charges in a series of corruption scandals and would confirm Israel’s continued tilt to the right and further dim hopes of a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
My colleague Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem has this explainer on yesterday’s election:
Updated
The Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is the second world leader to congratulate Netanyahu, in both English and Hebrew.
My dear friend Bibi, Congratulations! You are a great friend of India, and I look forward to continuing to work with you to take our bilateral partnership to new heights. @netanyahu
— Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 10, 2019
The Times of Israel is reporting that voting results in several Israeli settlements show more ballots were submitted than eligible voters, with the Union of Right-Wing Parties profiting from the apparent irregularities.
- In the northern West Bank settlement of Peduel, voter turnout was 113% with 894 ballots cast and 789 residents who were eligible to vote.
- In the southern West Bank settlement of Negohot, voter turnout was 143% with 125 ballots cast and 87 residents who were eligible to vote.
- In the ultra-Orthodox West Bank settlement of Modiin Illit, voter turnout was 104% with 19,989 ballots cast and 19,103 residents who were eligible to vote.
- In the northern West Bank settlement of Bruchin voter turnout was 167%, with 385 ballots cast and 230 residents who were eligible to vote.
You can check the Knesset website with the results as they come in here, broken down by locality.
Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurtz is the first world leader to congratulate Benjamin Netanyahu, although all votes have not yet been counted.
I am looking forward to working with you in the future, for the benefit of the people of Israel and the people of Austria.
— Sebastian Kurz (@sebastiankurz) April 10, 2019
Likud Knesset member Miki Zohar has appeared to launch a campaign to exonerate prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the allegations facing him in three corruption cases, the Times of Israel reported.
“The people decided that the cases [against Netanyahu] aren’t criminal in nature,” Zohar said in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster on Wednesday morning.
“The public thinks that there is a line that the courts and law enforcement should not cross — that’s the line the prime minister was on. You can’t cross this line and get to the point where you’re arguing that a politician speaking with the media committed a criminal act.”
In another interview with the Walla news site, Zohar urged attorney general Avichai Mandelblit to “come to his senses” and drop the planned indictments against the prime minister on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Netanyahu denies all the allegations.
“We’re seeing the lie [the corruption allegations against Netanyahu] being sustained only by law enforcement authorities,” Zohar said. “I hope the attorney general comes to his senses and sees the public’s decision [on election day] and what it thinks about Netanyahu.”
An aide to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas says the outcome of the election boosts the “extreme right-wing camp” in Israeli politics and raises Palestinian fears over the annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank.
In the final stretch of the campaign, Netanyahu pledged to annex vast swaths of the occupied West Bank and create further Israeli settlements, a move that would erode remaining hopes for Palestinian statehood.
Over the weekend, plans for 3,600 new homes in the occupied territory were advanced by the Israeli defence ministry which legalised an outpost by agreeing to seize privately-owned Palestinian land in order to build a road to the settlement, the Times of Israel reported.
“We will move to the next stage . . . I will impose sovereignty, but I will not distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements,” Netanyahu told Channel 12 News on Saturday night. “From my perspective, any point of settlement is Israeli, and we have responsibility, as the Israeli government. I will not uproot anyone, and I will not transfer sovereignty to the Palestinians.”
Abbas aide Ahmed Majdalani tells the Association Press that Palestinians will seek the help of the international community to try to block any annexation plans.
Prior to the election, the senior Palestinian official told AP: “The Palestinian cause is totally absent in the Israeli elections, and when it comes, it comes only in a negative context. This is worrisome, because it tells us that we are going from bad to worse.”
Benny Gantz, head of the centrist Blue and White alliance, has tweeted:
Good morning, fellas. Yes, Good morning! The reports tell their unfinished story. While there are dark skies, but there are no two things:
1) There is nothing final about them, because there may be electoral movements and we may be able to develop such political moves or others.
2) It is certainly not to conceal the sun of Hope.
That we gave to the people and society in Israel. They, our constituents, asked for hope and we gave it to them. They wanted another way and we took it. So, comrades, ‘your enemies have fallen into view and his godbroken into thy heart’.
Therefore, we do not retreat from our public duty to represent more than one million citizens who have asked us something else. An unprecedented historical achievement in the EMUs. We have something to be proud of and become.
Updated
A Palestine Liberation Organization representative says Israelis have chosen racism and permanent conflict by voting for candidates that are “unequivocally committed” to a “status quo of oppression”.
Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official, said:
Israeli voters have chosen their representatives. Regrettably, Israelis overwhelmingly voted for candidates that are unequivocally committed to entrenching the status quo of oppression, occupation, annexation and dispossession in Palestine and escalating the assault on Palestinian national and human rights. They have chosen an overwhelmingly rightwing, Xenophobic and anti-Palestinian parliament to represent them. Israelis chose to entrench and expand apartheid.
The extremist and militaristic agenda, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, has been emboldened by the Trump administration’s reckless policies and blind support. This cynical alliance against Palestinian rights and the standing of the rules-based international order remains unchallenged by the rest of the international community, thereby reinforcing the rightist and populist agendas.
The Palestinian people will overcome this dark and highly dangerous chapter and remain deeply rooted in our homeland. We are a resilient people and we will persist and forge alliances with like-minded and responsible international actors to create a counterbalance to the dangerous and reckless agenda and its adherence among other racist and fundamentalist governments, particularly in Israel.
This is Mattha Busby taking over from Kate Lyons.
Haaretz are reporting that Benny Gantz has written to party members to say although its “looking bleak”, the possibility of “electoral shifts” remains.
“It’s looking bleak but the results are not yet final. It’s possible that there will be electoral shifts, and that we can make certain political moves,” he wrote, according to the paper. “They wanted a different way and we showed it to them. We will not back down from our public duty to represent over a million people who asked us for something different. It’s an unprecedented historical victory. We should be proud.”
However, the Times of Israel says the head of the secular right-wing nationalist party Yisrael Beytenu, Avigdor Liberman, has confirmed to Ynet news site that it will either support prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, or remain in opposition.
“Either we join Netanyahu’s government or we remain in the opposition, we are also in the opposition, we understand the balance of power,” Liberman said.
Lieberman, whose party appears to have won five seats, had previously backed Gantz in a row over the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict earlier this year, according to Ynet.
Updated
Our correspondent, Oliver Holmes, has this wrap of the night’s results.
It appears that Arab parties have lost three seats in the Knesset in this election, after calls within the Arab community, which makes up almost a fifth of Israel’s population, to boycott the election.
Likud was censured on Tuesday for sending monitors with body-cameras to polling stations with Arab constituents, which Arab politicians condemned as voter intimidation. A Likud party official defended the move, saying the cameras were deployed to ensure there would be no vote rigging.
The Times of Israel has reported that the two main contenders for prime minister are on track to win each other’s home seats.
Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party is trailing behind Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likund party in Gantz’s working class hometown of Rosh Ha’ayin, though there is only about 300 votes in it.
Whereas in Caesarea, where Netanyahu lived before becoming prime minister, Blue and White is ahead of Likud 52.6% to 24%.
With the election results so close, the Associated Press reports that the country now faces what could be weeks of political negotiations over the composition of a ruling coalition.
The Central Election Committee is now counting the final 3% of votes, belonging to soldiers on bases and diplomats overseas. The votes of soldiers usually skew to the right. The counting is expected to be completed by Wednesday afternoon, according to the Times of Israel.
Updated
What we know so far
- Israeli media are reporting that with 97% of votes counted, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party appear to have tied, both parties are on track to get 35 seats each.
-
Both parties are well short of being able to form a majority government, but the right-wing and religious parties appear to have won more seats than the Arab, centre and left parties, meaning Netanyahu may have a clearer path to forming a right-wing government.
- After the final three percent of votes are counted – which include those from diplomats and soldiers – the president will ask one of the party leaders to try to form a government. This is not necessarily the party with the most votes, but the one most likely to be able to win support of other parties to form a government.
- Earlier in the night both Netanyahu and Gantz claimed victory, with Gantz saying: “We are the ones who won” and Netanyahu declaring it was: “a night of tremendous victory”.
- If Netanyahu is able to secure a victory, this summer he will become Israel’s longest-ever serving leader. Re-election would also give him an important boost as he braces for the likelihood of criminal charges in a series of corruption scandals and would confirm Israel’s continued tilt to the right and further dim hopes of a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Updated
If Netanyahu is able to secure a victory, as many Israeli media outlets are predicting he will, this summer he will become Israel’s longest-ever serving leader. Re-election would also give him an important boost as he braces for the likelihood of criminal charges in a series of corruption scandals.
A Netanyahu victory would confirm Israel’s continued tilt to the right and further dim hopes of a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In the final stretch of the campaign, Netanyahu had for the first time pledged to annex parts of the occupied West Bank in a desperate bid to rally his right-wing base. Annexation would snuff out the last flicker of hope for Palestinian statehood.
Our correspondent Oliver Holmes offers some context about why some news outlets are claiming victory for Benjamin Netanyahu when the vote between him and Gantz is so close. He writes:
It’s a bit confusing but because of Israel’s coalition government system, the key seats have been the ones that have not gone to either Netanyahu or Gantz.
The two main parties may have a similar number of seats in the Knesset but Netanyahu’s right-wing allies appear to have enough for him to make a majority government with them.
The president chooses the candidate he believes will have the best chance of forming a government, who does not necessarily have to have a big lead themselves or even be ahead.
The Times of Israel reports that with 97% of votes counted, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party still appear on track to get 35 seats each, but that “Netanyahu has a clear path to forming a right-wing government”.
The newspaper also reports that Arab party Ra’am Ra’am-Balad is at 3.45%, putting it past the 3.25% threshold required to enter the Knesset.
These results would give the right and religious bloc 65 seats, and the center, left and Arab parties 55 seats.
Channel 12 are reporting that with 96% of the votes counted, Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud has won 37 of Knesset seats, against 36 for centrist Blue and White, headed by Netanyahu’s rival, former general Benny Gantz.
Election day - in pictures
Netanyahu and Gantz tied at 35 seats with 95% of the vote counted
Partial results with 95% of votes counted showed Netanyahu’s Likud party tied with Gantz’s centrist Blue and White Party with 35 parliamentary seats each, the Knesset website and Israeli Channel 12 said.
Though neither party captured a ruling majority in the 120-member Knesset, the partial results put Netanyahu in a strong position to form a coalition government with right-wing factions, key to an ultimate victory.
One key Netanyahu ally, the New Right party headed by the current Education and Justice ministers, is on the cusp of falling below Israel’s electoral threshold for getting seats in parliament
Oliver Holmes also visited Efrat on election day.
Efrat is a large settlement in the occupied West Bank, whose residents include Jews who have emigrated, including from the US and the UK. At a polling station in Efrat’s school, many people spoke English rather than Hebrew.
Hundreds of thousands of settlers live in outposts in the Palestinian territories, which Israel’s military captured in a war more than half a century ago and continues to rule, controlling the lives of more than 2.5 million Palestinians.
Days ahead of the election, Netanyahu pledged to annex Jewish settlements if he wins reelection, a statement seen as a dramatic last-minute rallying call to his nationalist base.
Zvi Pakter, 64, who moved to Efrat in 1985, said that promise was “all election spin”. But he added recent developments such as Trump’s Jerusalem embassy declaration made him think Netanyahu might move ahead.
He said: “We have seen things we never thought would happen.”
Pakter supported Jewish Home, an Orthodox, pro-settler group that is in a far-right alliance. For him, they represent “religious feelings, nationalistic feelings, cleanest, religious Zionism.”
Another settler voter, Nina Broder, a 24-year-old dressmaker, said she voted for Netanyahu. “I trust him. He knows what he is doing,” she said.
“I’m worried that if he doesn’t win, the left is going to win.”
As we wait for results to come through, a look back at the day’s voting. Oliver Holmes, was in Sanhedria, Jerusalem during the day and has this dispatch.
In Sanhedria, a religious neighbourhood of Jerusalem, television screens in the streets showed the image of Aryeh Deri, a politician and founder of the ultra-Orthodox party, Shas.
People were gathering around and praying at the grave of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the party, which has been in a Netanyahu coalition government.
Gai Ychezkel, 40, said he had voted Shas for the last 20 years. “There is no reason to change. First of all, because Rabbi Yosef said to [vote Shas]. He is the one taking care of Judaism.”
Ychezkel said he believed his vote might help in the afterlife.
“When you vote for Shas, you vote for eternity,” he said. “When you die, your soul goes up. Maybe there is nothing. But if you vote for Shas, maybe you have a chance. Wouldn’t you take that chance?”
Netanyahu set to win most seats with 80% of the vote counted – Knesset website
Partial results with 80% of votes counted showed Netanyahu’s Likud with 38 seats, 8 more than in the previous election in 2015, and Gantz’s centrist Blue and White Party with 36, the Knesset website and Israeli TV channels said several hours after polls closed.
Exit polls on two of Israel’s three main TV channels earlier showed Likud several seats ahead while a third survey put Blue and White one seat ahead of Likud.
Though neither party captured a ruling majority in the 120-member Knesset, according to the polls, the surveys put Netanyahu in a strong position to form a coalition government with right-wing factions, key to an ultimate victory.
“It is a night of colossal victory,” the 69-year-old Netanyahu told cheering supporters in a late-night speech at Likud headquarters, while cautioning that a “long night and possibly day” lay ahead awaiting official results.
Fireworks flared behind him as his wife Sara applauded and kissed him. “He’s a magician,” the crowd chanted.
If he wins, Netanyahu, 69, will be on track to be the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s 71-year history. Netanyahu said he had already begun talks with prospective coalition allies.
Haaretz newspaper reports that partial Israeli election results show prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud winning 38 seats versus 35 for rival Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party.
Two updated exit polls from Israeli television channels also put Netanyahu on a clearer path to victory on Wednesday in Israel’s general election, suggesting he will win one seat more than Blue and White.
One of the polls further improved his chances of forming a coalition government based on smaller rightwing parties allied to Netanyahu.
תודה ♥️ pic.twitter.com/nucHw9ng0R
— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) April 10, 2019
‘A night of tremendous victory’ – Netanyahu’s speech
Benjamin Netanyahu has delivered a speech to supporters at the Likud election party, flanked by his wife Sara. The speech was frequently interrupted by cheers, chants of “Sara!” and boos when Netanyahu talked about the media.
Like Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s main rival, Netanyahu claimed victory for his party, saying they had achieved “a stupendous achievement” despite, what he called “a hostile media under impossible conditions”.
Netanyahu also said he would “the prime minister of all of Israel’s citizens, right wing and left wing, Jews and non-Jews alike”, though said he wanted to make it clear that any government he formed “will be a right-wing government”.
Here are some key moments from that speech:
I am very moved this night. This is a night of tremendous victory. Tremendous! God bless for keeping us and maintaining us to reach this time [a Jewish prayer, Shehechiyanu]. I don’t say that as lip service. I say that from the depth of my heart. Because a great sense of mission guides us. A great sense of mission guides me. I act day and night in your name, on your behalf, on behalf of our country, on behalf of our people, on behalf of our land!
I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart. You brought us an achievement beyond imagination, a stupendous achievement, almost incomprehensible. You brought an enormous achievement, incomprehensible, despite a hostile media under impossible conditions, and the Likud grew dramatically. This is a stunning achievement.
And I want to also tell you something personal. I am very moved that the people of Israel again put its faith in me, for the fifth time and even greater faith. I tell you: it again put its faith in me, and for us and for me, this is unprecedented. When before did we ever get so many seats? I don’t remember. According to the majority of the exit polls, the right-wing bloc led by the Likud will continue to lead the State of Israel in the next four years. And will continue to march the State of Israel toward new heights.
I believe, so I was taught, by my late father Prof. Benzion Netanyahu, and so he was taught by my grandfather of blessed memory, Rabbi Natan Milikowsky Netanyahu, I believe that the Holy One Blessed Be He and history have given the Jewish people another opportunity, a golden opportunity, to turn our country into a strong nation, one of the strongest nations of the world and it is to that end that I do what I do. A strong country, a country in which it is good to live, a country that it is good and safe to live in, for our sake and for the sake of the coming generations, for the sake of the eternal Israel.
I want to tell you, now it is shortly after 2:00 AM (shouting in the audience: haide Sara [hurray for Sara]) Well, I won’t interrupt shouts of haide Sara. Haide Sara!
I want to tell you that we have a long night ahead of us, perhaps also a long day, and we will wait for the final results... And together, all of us worked as one person, until the last minutes before the polling stations closed, to awaken our public and bring them to the polls, in order to win the battle.
All of you, without exception, brought a lot of heart and soul to the difficult battle. And each and every one of you has an important share in this great achievement. Thank you very much.
Tonight, I already began talks with the leaders of the right wing parties, our natural partners. Tonight, almost all of them already declared publicly that they would recommend that I form the next government, recommend me to our president. I intend to finish the work quickly, with the aim of forming a stable national government.
Now I want to make it clear: It will be a right-wing government. But I intend to be the prime minister of all of Israel’s citizens: right wing and left wing, Jews and non-Jews alike, all of Israel’s citizens. For I care for everyone. I care for the soldiers of us all, you know that. I care for the security of us all, you know that. I care for our country, you know that too. That’s how it has been, and that’s how it will be.
Great achievements can be credited to us. It’s not always published, to say the least. But the public is smart, the public knows, the public see. Great achievements are credited to us, but I want to tell you, great challenges also stand before us. In security, in economics, in society, in foreign relations; security challenges and also challenges for normalization and peace with the Arab world. This is happening. It is happening even as we speak. Great challenges in all fields. I am certain that with joint efforts we will overcome all these challenges. For that reason I would like once again to thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Likud Party have posted this video of Netanyahu and his wife arriving at the Likud election party and addressing supporters. We’ll have a translation of his speech soon.
ניצחון ענק לימין בהובלת הליכוד! https://t.co/U8BSnqGV0k
— הליכוד (@Likud_Party) April 9, 2019
According to Kan Television News, after 40% of the ballots have been counted the results stand at:
Likud (Netanyahu): 40
Blue and White (Gantz): 35
Shas: 9
UTJ: 7
Labor Party: 6
Yisrael Beiteinu: 6
Kulanu: 5
Meretz: 4
Hadash-Taal: 4
Netanyahu and his wife Sara have arrived on stage. However, as our correspondent Oliver Holmes’ photograph shows, the room is not quite as full as the organisers probably hoped.
I have arrived at the Likud election night event, which is also in Tel Aviv and walking distance from Blue and White’s event.
Atmosphere here is much more muted, with fewer chants and celebrations. A lot of people standing around. But to be fair, it’s a huge venue and so not as packed.
While at Blue and White there was a sense the exit polls proved they had a chance, the interpretation here seems to be one of no certain victory for Netanyahu.
Gideon Sa’ar, a prominent member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, was mingling in the crowd. Asked if he was worried about the exit polls, he was said it was “an amazing result in very complicated circumstances”.
Spotted at the Likud event: a Trump flag and a mariachi band.
Reuters have this explainer about voting in the election and when we should expect to see results:
How long does it take for results to come in?
Final results are expected by Friday, but partial results are published by the Knesset as the vote-counting proceeds, so a clearer picture will begin to emerge before the final tally.
How are results calculated?
Israel has a parliamentary system, which means voters choose from party lists of candidates to serve in the 120-seat Knesset. No party has won a majority since Israel*s first election, in 1949.
In the 2019 election, about 6 million Israelis are eligible to vote. To enter parliament, a party must pass a threshold of at least 3.25% of the national vote, equivalent to four Knesset seats.
With 40 parties running, of which at least 12 have a real chance of passing the threshold, the calculations take time.
What happens after the results are published?
Israel’s president will consult with the leaders of every party that won seats about their preference for prime minister, and will then choose the legislator who he believes has the best chance of putting together a coalition.
The nominee, who does not necessarily have to be the head of the largest party, has up to 42 days to form a government. If he or she fails, the president asks another politician to try. The leading candidates usually have a good idea whether they have majority support before they meet with the president, but things can often change in the process of deal-making.
What sort of coalition could be formed?
Netanyahu will likely seek a coalition similar to his current government, with ultranationalist and Jewish Orthodox parties. Gantz, who heads the centrist Blue and White Party, will likely have the support of the left-wing parties. But early exit polls predict that even with that he would fall short of a governing majority.
How long until a government in in place?
Past coalition negotiations have often dragged on. Whoever is asked to form the next government will have to accommodate numerous parties, unless Netanyahu and Gantz choose to join forces and form a unity government.
'We are the ones who won,' Gantz gives speech to supporters
Benny Gantz has given a speech to supporters in which he calls today “an historic day” and claims victory for his Blue and White party. Both Gantz and Netanyahu have declared victory in the contest, and exit polls have them neck and neck.
Even when the result is known, neither candidate is likely to win a clear majority, so it will be the job of Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, to see which party has the best chance of forming a coalition government.
Gantz told supporters: “The largest party is the one that needs to receive the mandate from the president. In elections there are losers; in elections there are winners; and we are the ones who won.”
“We understand that we will wait for the real results, which will gradually develop in our favor as well, and we will work in the next few days on what is necessary so as to form as broad a government as possible.”
Gantz’s was a message of unity, thanking Netanyahu for his “service on behalf of the country” and declaring he would be the “prime minister of everyone”, not just those who voted for him. Crucially, he made overtures to “Jews and non-Jews”, saying he wanted a system that “does not leave behind a single person from Israeli society”.
Here are some key points from the speech:
Friends, a great light is shining on our Israel. This is an historic day. More than a million people voted today for Blue and White. Our people and our society chose [or voted for] to connect, chose to unite, chose to flee from division. You chose me, you chose my partners, you chose a team, you chose cooperation. I am very pleased with that attitude, which shows that things can be brought together. That isn’t something that cannot be done.
We want to thank Binyamin Netanyahu for his service on behalf of the country. To say that despite the disagreements between us, we will rise above the resentments and anger that have built up, because we will now respect the voters’ will, just as he said: the largest party is the one that needs to receive the mandate from the president [to form the next government]. In elections there are losers; in elections there are winners; and we are the ones who won. We might be new, but we aren’t clueless. We understand that we will wait for the real results, which will gradually develop in our favor as well, and we will work in the next few days on what is necessary so as to form as broad a government as possible.
Yes, friends, what didn’t [people] say: They said that we wouldn’t go into politics. We went in. They said we wouldn’t connect. We connected. They said we wouldn’t unite. We united. They said we wouldn’t win. We won.
Friends, we won and we’ll continue to win. But I will tell you how we’ll continue to win. We will continue to win not only based on our size, but based on our path. And the path will be first and foremost a path of respect for everyone. A path of respecting the past, respecting the present, and building together a future that has not yet arrived. We must remember to change the discourse, just we were careful to do during the election campaign, to make every effort to preserve a connecting discourse—we will make an effort to preserve a connecting discourse from here on too.
Yes, friends. I will be the prime minister of everyone, and not only of those who voted for us. No one from a party other than ours should be worried today. The only thing that people should think about is what is the common denominator between us, where we can connect, and about a basis of common understanding. [A basis] of a desire to maintain something vital and positive here. We will know how to talk to everyone, to cooperate with everyone, and to build an important and fair governmental system that serves religious and secular, Jews and non-Jews, center and periphery, and does not leave behind a single person from Israeli society.
This is Kate Lyons taking over from Adam Gabbatt.
The front page of leading Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth today reflects the close nature of the results and the uncertainty about who will emerge from today’s vote as the country’s leader.
Depending on which way you hold the paper, you see Netanyahu or Gantz upright.
The text for both candidates reads: “The next prime minister.”
At the Blue and White election event, spoke to a member of his party, Michael Biton, who will almost certainly get a seat in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
I asked how he feels about Gantz’s chances after the inconclusive exit polls.
“Proud and good. And a little careful. We’re waiting for the results,” he said, a Diet Coke in his hand and squeezed into the crowd.
Voters have "said no to peace and yes to the occupation" – Palestinian official
Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, said Israel has voted to “maintain the status quo”.
What the exit polls suggest is that Israelis have voted to preserve the status quo, they have said no to peace and yes to the occupation,” Erekat said:
The fact that so far only 18 out of 120 elected members of the Israeli parliament support the two state solution on the 1967 border is a consequence of the culture of impunity granted to Israel.
Now the international community has no excuse. Refusal to hold Israel accountable means complicity with perpetual occupation and apartheid.
I just arrived at Benny Gantz’s election night party in Tel Aviv.
It’s just after midnight here and there’s a buoyant atmosphere, with supporters chanting and waving Israeli flags – among them a gay pride rainbow flag.
It’s a large crowd but quite intimate too, with several aspiring parliamentarians from Gantz’s party in the crowd. His son is also mingling with supporters.
When Gantz arrived the mood lifted even further, the White and Blue leader walking in to the room to applause and booming drums.
Updated
As the polls were closing in Israel, US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo was being questioned in the Senate on US policy on any unilateral Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
Pompeo refused to give a definitive answer, referring to the long-delayed US peace plan, still apparently being worked on by Jared Kushner and special envoy, Jason Greenblatt.
At a session of a Senate appropriations subcommittee, Democratic senator from Maryland, Chris van Hollen, asked Pompeo whether the Trump administration was going to follow the lead of its predecessors and “oppose Israel’s unilateral annexation of any or all of the West Bank”.
“We are in the process of laying down our vision to resolve a problem that has...” Pompeo began to say, before being cut off by van Hollen, who pointed out he was asking about a unilateral annexation, not an agreed land swap.
“The polls are closing right now and things could move very quickly and as you know the prime minister as a candidate said he could annex part or all of the West Banks,” van Hollen said.
“[Netanyahu] said settlements including outposts, and today you cannot tell us what US policy is on this issue?”
Pompeo stonewalled: “I think I’ve answered the question as I’m going to answer the question.”
A few minutes earlier Pompeo had defended Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, rejecting comparisons with Russian annexation of Crimea. “The two situations could not be more starkly different,” the secretary of state said, arguing that Israel was defending itself in 1967 he said, while the Russian seizure of Crimea in 2014 was an act of aggression.
Summary
•Exit polls show Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz neck and neck in Israel’s parliamentary election. A series of the polls – which can be unreliable – showed the pair tied, or Gantz with a narrow lead.
•Both Netanyahu and Gantz swiftly declared victory. But in reality neither Netanyahu’s Likud party nor Gantz’s Blue and White will know the results for several hours.
•In any case, the winner of the popular vote is less important than who can form a government. Neither candidate is likely to win a clear majority, so it will be the job of Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, to see which party has the best chance of forming a coalition government.
This is from the Daily Telegraph’s middle east correspondent:
The exit polls are showing that when Israel's president asks party leaders who should be PM, Netanyahu is likely to have more support.
— Raf Sanchez (@rafsanchez) April 9, 2019
But if Gantz has clearly won the most seats, the president may feel Gantz has the real mandate to form the government.
As we wait for the results to roll in, let’s remember that one of Netanyahu’s most powerful messages to his supporters this election has been the anti-Palestinian concessions he managed to get from Donald Trump.
During his term, Trump has ticked off a series of measures previously demanded by the right wing in Israel but that no previous US leader has agreed to.
He has:
- Recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, breaking a long-standing international consensus that its status should be decided in a peace deal with the Palestinians, who claim its eastern half.
- Drastically slashed hundreds of millions of dollars humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
- Shuttered Palestinian diplomatic offices in Washington and closing its own consulate that serves the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
- Recognised Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, breaking from post-second world war international consensus that forbids territorial conquest during war.
In a pre-election interview, Netanyahu said only he was able to win these concessions. He held up the Golan Heights declaration Trump signed and said: “Look at this, look at what we just got … this is what I did in one week.”
The Palestinian leadership fears the Golan declaration sets a precedent for recognition of Israeli sovereignty over parts of the occupied West Bank, and in the same interview Netanyahu said Washington was aware of his plan to do just that.
More on Netanyahu’s Trump card here:
Here’s a nice summary from the Associated Press:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main challenger, former military chief Benny Gantz, were locked in a neck and neck race Tuesday as exit polls showed no clear winner in an election that was seen as a referendum on the long-serving leader.
With final results hours away, the early indications were that Netanyahu suffered a setback by failing to score a decisive victory. The 69-year-old prime minister’s fate is clouded by a series of corruption investigations.
Two Israeli TV stations showed Gantz’s Blue and White Party with a narrow lead over the Likud, while a third exit poll showed them deadlocked.
Yet two of the polls gave the Likud and its hard-line allies the upper hand in being able to form a parliamentary coalition, and a third poll put the two blocs in a tie.
In separate statements, both declared victory.
“We won! The Israeli public has had their say!” the Blue and White party said. “These elections have a clear winner and a clear loser.”
It urged the Israeli president to “call on the winner to form the next government. There is no other option!”
Netanyahu said his right-wing bloc won a “clear victory.”
“I thank the citizens of Israel for the trust. I will already begin building a right-wing government with our natural partners tonight,” he said.
Israeli exit polls are notoriously imprecise, meaning the final results could still swing in either direction. Official results weren’t expected until Wednesday morning.
Benjamin Netanyahu is also claiming victory. (Like Gantz, Netanyahu does not actually know if he has won):
“The right-wing bloc, led by the Likud, won a clear victory,” he said on Twitter. (Translation by Oliver Holmes):
גוש הימין בהובלת הליכוד ניצח ניצחון מובהק. אני מודה לאזרחי ישראל על האמון. אתחיל בהרכבת ממשלה ימנית עם שותפינו הטבעיים כבר הלילה
— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) April 9, 2019
A bit of context here from Allyn Fisher-Ilan, an editor at Israeli newspaper Haaretz:
Scorecard of Israeli TV exit polls: Wide disparities, but right-wing bloc seems to have an edge. So either Gantz builds a super-right coalition or Bibi does.... let's see what the official results show, a seat here or there can change picture #IsraElex19 https://t.co/TGTUR0Ap1R
— Allyn Fisher-Ilan (@AFilan) April 9, 2019
Huge disparities among the three Israeli exit polls. One TV channel has Gantz ahead of Netanyahu by four seats .... looks like a long night of counting ahead #IsraelElections2019
— Allyn Fisher-Ilan (@AFilan) April 9, 2019
Anshel Pfeffer @AnshelPfeffer https://t.co/9uE2F3rwiC
Benny Gantz and his running mate, Yair Lapid, have put out a joint statement claiming to have “won”:
We won! 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!
It’s an excitable statement, but also rather premature.
There have only been a few exit polls – and we’ve been burned by those before – while we won’t get official results for hours yet.
Updated
Exit polls are coming thick and fast from a number of Israeli TV channels:
•Channel 13: Gantz (36) Netanyahu (36)
•Channel 12: Gantz (37) Netanyahu (33)
•Channel 11: Gantz (37) Netanyahu (36)
One thing we can clearly take from this is that it’s going to be close. However, as well as exit polls being unreliable, Oliver Holmes points out that this is not a binary race between the two candidates. It will depend on which politician has the ability to form a coalition.
The Associated Press has this:
Channels 12 and Kan TV gave the Blue and White party, headed by former military chief Benny Gantz, a narrow lead over the Likud, while Channel 10 TV showed them in a tie in Tuesday’s vote.
The channels also gave different breakdowns for possible coalitions, with two stations giving Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc a slight parliamentary majority while Channel 12 had them tied at 60 seats apiece.
With neither side having a clear advantage, they will have to wait for official results to come in overnight.
Updated
Exit poll shows Netanyahu and Gantz neck and neck
An exit poll by Channel 13, released just after polls closed in Israel, shows Netanyahu and Gantz deadlocked, both with 36 seats, Oliver Holmes reports.
Updated
Our man in Israel, Oliver Holmes, sends this from Katamonim, in Jerusalem – a neighborhood where there is a mix of Israelis, some secular and some religious.
Moshe Tzvi, 22, studied at a religious seminary but had set up a stall outside a polling station to hand out fliers for the United Right, an alliance of far-right parties. The group has been internationally condemned for its inclusion of Jewish Power, an anti-Arab, pro-settlement party.
One of its candidates said “disloyal” Arabs should be expelled. Tzvi supported that idea. “My personal belief is that people who are not loyal to the country, they should go out,” he said.
Just outside the polling station, which was inside a school, a couple had just voted. Miriam Lemash, 72, and her husband, Yaakov, 76, said they voted to reelect Netanyahu.
“It was the first time in my life that I voted Bibi,” said Yaakov, who had previously voted for religious parties. “I want to tell Bibi, thank you … no government did what Bibi did for Israel.”
Miriam said the leader had boosted both the economy and Israel’s international standing.
Asked about the corruption allegations, Yaakov replied: “I know some of the things Bibi did are wrong but I’m not looking for a rabbi. I’m looking for a leader.”
Another voter, literature scholar Karin Twito, 52, would not say who she voted for but expressed disdain for most parties. Israeli politics, she said, was more like a reality show. “People vote as if for a soccer team,” she said, saying they will always vote for the same party.
What could the election mean for the peace process?
Peace with the Palestinians used to be the primary issue in Israeli elections. But it has not featured prominently on the campaign trail.
Observers point to various reasons for this. Some say Israelis have lost hope following failed peace efforts, while others argue the occupation has become so tightly managed that its is effectively out of sight and out of mind, meaning voters do not consider it an issue. Some point to a lack of international pressure.
There is a US peace plan being drafted, although few details are known. The Palestinian leadership has already rejected Washington as a mediator, citing Trump’s bias.
More on that peace plan here:
All eyes are on Benny Gantz today, as the leader of the Blue and White part bids to oust Benjamin Netanyahu. Gantz, 59, is the former head of the Israel Defense Forces, and was barely known until a few months ago.
Since then, he has become the unlikely rallying figure for Israel’s left-wing – an alliance mostly based around a joint desire to remove Netanyahu from office.
“Gantz has run a campaign that is light on policies but focuses on how he can ‘unite’ a divided country and reset its democracy,” writes Oliver Holmes:
He has focused on how members of Netanyahu’s cabinet have battered state institutions. The culture minister, Miri Regev, has tried to cut funding to groups considered not “loyal” to Israel, while the justice minister, Ayelet Shaked, pushed to weaken the Israeli judiciary, which she sees as a barrier to a hard-right agenda.
[Gantz’s] campaign promises, handed out on blue fliers, read like a series of digs at Netanyahu: “We will fight corruption … we will defend the country’s institutions, including its justice and legal systems.”
[...]
Gantz has attempted political acrobatics: he considers himself leftwing, rightwing and centrist. In the same breath, he will try to woo voters who want to forge peace with Israel’s neighbours and those who see brute force as the only option.
Read about him here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/05/best-of-the-worst-israels-left-looks-to-gantz-as-election-nears
Updated
So what’s at stake today?
More than anything, the election is viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu and where he has taken Israel since he first rose to high office in 1996. Supporters of “King Bibi”, as he is known, claim Israelis have never been safer while enjoying a booming economy.
At the same time, the 69-year-old has all-but-buried the country’s peace movement, and millions of Palestinians remain under oppressive, tightly-managed military control. Israel under his tenure has swung dramatically to the right, squeezing critical voices while further sidelining and demonising minorities. He has pursued foreign relations with authoritarian strongmen and fell foul with Israel’s more liberal supporters.
One critical development that has alarmed even his staunchest backers is that Netanyahu has courted some of the most racist figures in Israeli politics to keep his seat. Running in a tight race for re-election, a Netanyahu win could bring more extreme far-right voices to power.
Welcome to the Guardian's live coverage of Israel's general election
•Israelis are voting today in an election that could extend, or end, Benjamin Netanyahu’s 10-year uninterrupted spell as prime minister. The vote is seen as a referendum on the tenure of Netanyahu and his Likud party, and polling suggests it will be close.
•Benny Gantz, a former army chief and leader of the centrist Blue and White party, is Netanyahu’s main rival. Gantz, a political novice, has played up his “clean” image compared to Netanyahu, who is under investigation for allegedly receiving gifts in return for political favors and other potential corruption-related crimes.
•Israel has swung to the right under Netanyahu, and the prime minister played to his nationalist base during the campaign. Netanyahu has promised to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank if re-elected, which would be a huge blow to a potential two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The prime minister has courted some of the most racist figures in Israeli politics during the election.
•Voting ends at 10pm local time (8pm BST, 3pm EST), and we should know the winner by early Wednesday. But it could be a while before we know the identity of Israel’s next prime minister. Israel’s political system depends on a series of coalitions in the 120-seat Knesset. After the election the president of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, will consult with major parties to see who has the best chance of forming a coalition government.
We’ll have the news from our Jerusalem correspondent, Oliver Holmes, and the latest updates as the votes are counted.
