Summary
- The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his main challenger, Benny Gantz, are neck and neck in the country’s second national election this year. Neither party, even with likely coalition partners, has a clear majority and the leaders could be set to face a long period of negotiations once again.
- Netanyahu addressed supporters at party headquarters in the early hours of Wednesday morning, saying: “In the coming days, we will enter into negotiations to establish a strong Zionist government and to prevent a dangerous anti-Zionist government. The “anti-Zionist” reference was directed at Israel’s Arab parties, with exit polls showing they could become the third-largest force in parliament.
- In a cautiously optimistic speech to supporters on Wednesday morning, Benny Gantz, the leader of Blue and White, said he would seek to form a unity government with his political opponents and called on them to meet with his to form a better government for all citizens. “It looks like for the second time, the citizens of Israel gave their trust to us,” he said to chants from the crowd of “Who is this? The next prime minister!”
- Avigdor Lieberman, a hardliner who forced the election when he rejected a coalition with Netanyahu earlier this year, has doubled his secularist party’s support and could emerge the kingmaker. He favours a Netanyahu-Gantz alliance that would lock out ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties.
- Netanyahu is fighting not only for his political life but also his freedom. Pre-trial hearings for three corruption cases against him are just weeks away and a majority in the 120-seat parliament could help grant him immunity from prosecution.
Updated
At 9am local time, the official tally said 42% of votes had been counted, with Likud on 28%, and Blue and White on 27%.
However, Israeli news outlets, citing sources within the country’s elections committee, reported that about 90% of votes had been counted and showed a dead heat with each of the two main parties with 32 seats in the Knesset. The reports said the committee was rechecking the results before publishing them.
Updated
The mood was quite downbeat at Likud party’s HQ earlier today, and certainly compared with the atmosphere during the April election.
I spoke with a Likud party volunteer just after Netanyahu’s speech who seemed worried about the prospects for the prime minister. Batel Benjamin, 29, has been working all day to get people to vote in the Israel settlement of Ariel in the occupied West Bank. But she said even some Likud supporters did not believe Netanuyahu’s warning that they could lose the election, and so did not cast ballots.
When asked about exit polls showing Likud slightly behind, she said: “I’m not surprised. We felt it all day – people were pretty indifferent. I still believe Netanyahu will be the next prime minister. We hope that it will be with a rightwing government, but maybe it will be a unity government.”
Benjamin is a settler herself and has been a long-time supporter of the prime minister, saying she believes in “keeping the land of Israel, not giving parts to the Arabs”, in reference to the Palestinian territories.
You can read our full story about the night’s events here.
Updated
Avigdor Lieberman has also laid out his demands, including military service for the ultra-Orthodox, public transportation and commerce on the Sabbath, saying he will not speak to other party leaders until they meet his preconditions, the Times of Israel reports.
He also expressed willingness to sit in a government under Benjamin Netanyahu, a softening of tone for Lieberman, though he remained adamant that a government should not be formed that includes Arab parties, something he called “absurd”.
“Don’t waste your time. We need to pursue the only possible track as fast as possible,” he says, referring to his demands for a unity government, which he describes as “the only possible action”.
Updated
Haaretz reports that Avigdor Lieberman, who looks set to become a kingmaker after the night’s inconclusive result, commented on the election results on Wednesday morning, saying:
“The picture is clear … There is only one option and it’s a broad liberal unity government,” which is what Benny Gantz was calling for in his speech to supporters in the early hours of this morning. Netanyahu’s supporters and less keen, as the incumbent PM took the stage this morning, it was to chants of “no unity”.
Updated
From earlier this morning: Netanyahu and Gantz speak to supporters as election results too close to call - video
Summary
- Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main challenger Benny Gantz are awaiting results from the country’s general election on Wednesday after exit polls showed them locked in a tight race.
- Early results show the two major parties are almost neck and neck, with neither major party looking set to get a clear majority, even with their coalition parties, meaning leaders could be set to face a long period of negotiations once again.
- This is the second time Israel has gone to the polls this year. Netanyahu appeared to narrowly beat Gantz in an April election, but he failed to form a government and so forced a repeat vote to give himself another chance.
- Netanyahu addressed supporters at party headquarters in the early hours of Wednesday morning saying: “In the coming days, we will enter into negotiations to establish a strong Zionist government and to prevent a dangerous anti-Zionist government. The “anti-Zionist” reference was directed at Israel’s Arab parties, with exit polls showing they could become the third-largest force in parliament.
- In a rally at which Netanyahu’s supporters chanted “Bibi, king of Israel” and some waved Trump posters, Netanyahu praised Donald Trump, whom he called a “close friend”, saying: “negotiations with President Trump will shape the future of Israel for generations to come. And because of this, Israel needs a strong and stable and Zionist government.”
- In a cautiously optimistic speech to supporters on Wednesday morning, Benny Gantz, the leader of Blue and White, said he would seek to form a unity government with his political opponents and called on them to meet with his to form a better government for all citizens. “It looks like for the second time, the citizens of Israel gave their trust to us,” he said to chants from the crowd of “Who is this? The next prime minister!”
- Netanyahu is fighting not only for his political life but also his freedom. Pre-trial hearings for three corruption cases against him are just weeks away and a majority in the 120-seat parliament could help grant him immunity from prosecution.
- Netanyahu vowed last week to declare up to a third of the occupied West Bank as part of Israel if he was re-elected and Gantz swiftly accused his political opponent of stealing his idea.
Israel’s Channel 12 says it has received reports from sources in the Central Elections Committee, which reflect around 85% of the national vote.
The station says that according to those unofficial results, Netanyahu’s Likud and Gantz’s Blue and White are tied at 32 seats and that including minor parties, the rightwing bloc has a total of 56 seats, the centre-left has 55 and Lieberman has 9.
Channel 12 says its sources tell it that a majority of votes have already been counted, but due to increased scrutiny, the CEC is doing recounts in order to ensure the information it puts out is accurate.
Updated
An update: 25.77% of the vote has been counted and the gap in primary vote for Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party, is closing, with 28.42% for Likud and 25.4% for Blue and White.
According to the official tally, 18.45% of votes have been counted, with 29.19% for Netanyahu’s Likud party and 24.38% for Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party.
Israel’s former defence chief Avigdor Lieberman has called for a national unity government after election exit polls suggest the result is too close to call. The possible kingmaker in the parliamentary election told a campaign rally: ‘We have only one option – a national, liberal, broad government comprising Yisrael Beitenu, Likud and Blue and White.’
According to Israel’s election commission, 10.26% of votes (656,000 votes) have been counted now, with 30.5% of votes for Likud and 23.6% of votes for Blue and White.
The count-tracker is here.
The leaders address supporters as Israel waits for results – in pictures
According to the Times of Israel, as of 2:15 am (about an hour and a half ago), just 5%(336,341) votes have been counted. By contrast, during the April election, 1.6 million ballots had been tallied by this hour.
The newspaper reports that the Central Elections Committee is warning the process will take much longer in this vote compared to the vote in April longer this time, and the full picture may not emerge until Wednesday afternoon.
“This is our country, we have no other, we will save it together,” says Netanyahu.
And he’s finished speaking. Supporters are now joining him on stage and are shaking his hand.
Updated
Netanyahu says Israel needs a strong, stable, Zionist government to work with his ‘close friend’ Donald Trump
Netanyahu continues: “We are still waiting for the true results, but one thing is clear, the state of Israel is at an historic junction with great opportunities, as well as great challenges ahead of us. The existential threat from Iran and allies, and we are fighting them without fear. The last year we brought defence strength, economic growth.
“Soon, the plan of the century will be presented by my close friend President Trump and the negotiations with President Trump will shape the future of Israel for generations to come. And because of this, Israel needs a strong and stable and Zionist government. A government that is committed to Israel as a national state for the Jewish people. There can’t be a government that is being supported by anti-Zionist, Arabic parties that doesn’t believe in Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Parties who are supporting terrorists who are killing our families and our children. It is unthinkable.”
Netanyahu is attacking the media, saying his party faced the extraordinary bias of the media. The crowd boos.
“We managed to bring big results despite the one-sided media coverage,” he says.
The crowd are cheering “Bibi, the king of Israel.”
Netanyahu is speaking to a crowd of a few hundred people. There are people standing on chairs with Israeli flags and there is a Trump Banner in the hall just like in April.
“My friends, members of the Likud, partners in my path. I have a sore throat,” he says.
“But it is better to lose my voice than to lose your country.”
“I have come here tonight together with my wife Sara” – chants of “Sara! Sara!” – “I came here tonight to say thank you, thank you from the depths of my heart. We thank you, we trust you, we believe in you.”
He says it was a “tough election campaign”. “I want to thank first of all the members of the parliament and members of the Likud, we worked together in unity and together we will be united for the future, the future for the good of Israel.”
Netanyahu addresses supporters at the Likud election party
Benjamin Netanyahu is addressing supporters at the Likud election party.
The crowd is cheering “Bibi! Bibi!”. They are also chanting: “We don’t want unity!” (Meaning a unity government.)
Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived at the Likud election party. He is walking through the crowd, shaking hands of supporters.
A little on voter turnout today, which was slightly higher than for April’s vote.
Israel’s election commission says 69.4% of eligible voters cast ballots in unprecedented repeat elections, with 4,440,141 votes cast by the time polls closed in Tuesday’s elections.
Turnout in April’s elections was 68.5%. Parliament voted to dissolve itself when Netanyahu was not able to form a majority coalition.
Interestingly, turnout among Arab voters was significantly higher than it was in April’s vote, suggesting Netanyahu’s anti-Arab scaremongering may have actually boosted Arab turnout.
Turnout among Arabs 61%, up from 49% in April. @AyOdeh says one of their seats came from Jews mad at incitement against Arabs by @netanyahu.
— Gil Hoffman (@Gil_Hoffman) September 17, 2019
We have had word that Benjamin Netanyahu will address supporters in five minutes. Our correspondent Oliver Holmes has rushed across town to get from the Blue and White party to the Likud party and will have updates for us as soon as that speech begins.
Benny Gantz sounded a cautiously optimistic note in his speech to supporters, saying he will try to form a unity government, but is still waiting for official results to come through. pic.twitter.com/aNjvCOwKqY
— Kate Lyons (@MsKateLyons) September 17, 2019
Gantz is high-fiving and hugging supporters and candidates on stage.
Gantz says he will speak to “everybody” to form a coalition, including Lieberman.
“I will fight to create a national unity government,” he says. “A wide unity government.”
Gantz is calling on his political opponents to meet with him to form a better government for all citizens.
He reiterates that they need to wait patiently for results to come in.
He finishes by saying: “Last night I went to the Wailing Wall and I prayed that I would be capable to fulfil my assignment tonight.”
Speech is done, Gantz has left the stage to applause.
Updated
“According to the results, it looks like for the second time, the citizens of Israel gave their trust to us, the citizens gave their trust to unity and to respect democracy in Israel as a country that is a Jewish state and a democratic state,” says Gantz.
“We proved and I promise that starting tonight, regardless of the results, the beginning of the campaign to heal Israel society has started.”
Gantz is thanking supporters and volunteers: “You are the change,” he says.
Gantz is also thanking his family, who says have barely seen him over the last three months and his running mates, including Yair Lapid, whom he calls a friend as well as a political ally.
“We are going to have a meeting to summarise, we have to be patient. This is a long road, we took a big assignment on us and now we have to exercise patient to get the final result. It looks according to the results right now that Netanyahu did not manage to fulfil his mission.”
“The idea that is Blue and White that we started just one year ago is a valid one and it is part of Israel.”
Benny Gantz is onstage addressing supporters, saying “Of course we will wait for the real results but it looks like we stayed on our target and we did it our way” pic.twitter.com/5adUP7vH84
— Kate Lyons (@MsKateLyons) September 17, 2019
The crowd is chanting: “Who is this? The next prime minister!”
Benny Gantz addresses Blue and White supporters
Benny Gantz is addressing supporters at the Blue and White election party.
“I am excited to be here tonight. Of course we will wait for the official results but the way it looks right now, we have accomplished our mission and we did it our way.”
Benny Gantz has arrived on stage. Supporters are cheering and chanting.
Yair Lapid, Gantz’s main running partner is now on stage, he says: “The citizens of Israel showed today that they are better than the politicians of Israel.”
Moshe Ya’alon, the former defence minister and current running mate of Benny Gantz says to supporters of Gantz’s Blue and White party, as they wait to hear about the outcome of today’s vote:
“We need to wait for the real results but the people said clearly what they want. They said no to lying politics, no to hate politics, no to corruption.”
Moshe Ya’alon, another running mate of Gantz’s has come on stage at the Blue and White election party.
He says Blue and White “is a clear message to bring the state of Israel back onto the tracks”.
Benny Gantz’s running mate Gabi Ashkenazi is onstage at the Blue and White election party. He is thanking volunteers from across the country and saying they are waiting for official results to come through.
Benny Gantz’s running mate Gabi Ashkenazi is addressing supporters at the Blue and White election party #israelelections2019 pic.twitter.com/RxSqWgNkzY
— Kate Lyons (@MsKateLyons) September 17, 2019
We are expecting the two leaders to address their supporters within the next hour.
Benny Gantz is expected onstage at his Blue and White election party any moment (someone just came onstage to test the microphone, which is being interpreted as a sign his arrival is imminent).
Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to address Likud supporters within the next hour. We’ll bring you news of both speeches when they happen.
Oliver Holmes, the Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent, is at the Blue and White election party and just spoke to another Blue and White candidate. He is ninth on their list so will certainly make it into parliament.
He says Blue and White’s strategy will be to form a unity government with Likud, but importantly without Netanyahu. It’s unclear whether the Likud party will drop its leader, who has served ten consecutive years.
I pressed him on it, but he stood firm, saying there cannot be a “government led by a man who has encouraged tribalism inside Israeli society”
The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent Oliver Holmes is at Blue and White HQ, where things are heating up after poll updates put their candidate Benny Gantz slightly ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu.
He says Blue and White officials told himGantz was due to speak about an hour ago. Still waiting but they appear to be preparing the stage for someone.
Things are beginning to heat up at the election party of Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party, says the Guardian’s Oliver Holmes, after exit polls show a more positive result for their party. #israelelections2019 pic.twitter.com/fnoLiCBgjI
— Kate Lyons (@MsKateLyons) September 17, 2019
Exit polls point to positive result for Benny Gantz's Blue and White Party
Hello everyone, I’m taking over from Kevin Rawlinson and will bringing you the news as it comes in overnight. Thanks for following along.
Several exit polls have been updated and the results are not looking great for Netanyahu’s Likud party. But, we must stress, these are exit polls, not official results.
Channel 11 has Likud losing a seat, down to 31 seats, with Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party on 32.
Channel 11 has also updated its exit poll and it's bad for Netanyahu as well. Likud loses a seat, down now to 31 (B&W still on 32) and Joint List gains a seat. So Netanyahu coalition in that poll down to 55 seats.
— Anshel Pfeffer (@AnshelPfeffer) September 17, 2019
The Jerusalem Post reports on an updated exit poll from Channel 13, which puts Blue and White at 2 seats and Netanyahu’s Likud party on 30 seats, meaning Netanyahu’s centre-right bloc is sitting on a total of 53 seats and the Gantz’s centre-left bloc has a total of 59.
That’s it from me for now. My colleague, Kate Lyons, will be taking it from here.
Channel 13 just made a dramatic update to their exit poll after rechecking. They now give Blue and White a better chance at winning. At Blue and White election party HQ, everyone screamed in delight when the news arrived on big screens.
It bears repeating once again, however, that these are all just polls and not the result.
Updated Channel 13 exit poll
— Lahav Harkov (@LahavHarkov) September 17, 2019
Blue and White 32
Likud 30
**Joint List 15**
Shas 9
Yisrael Beytenu 8
UTJ 8
Yamina 6
Democratic Union 6
Labor-Gesher 6
Center-Left 59 (with Joint List)
Right 53
Updated
Yael German, a member of Blue and White and a former health minister is at the party’s HQ this evening. She looks set to comfortably make it into the Knesset as she is 13 on the party list, with the exit polls suggesting Blue and White will end up with at least 30 seats.
Asked how she feels with the unclear exit polls, she declared herself upbeat, saying they broadly show her party as the largest.
I feel enthusiastic and excited. But I’m trying to hold it down. We have to be cautious until we have the real results.
She dismissed concerns that Blue and White still don’t appear to have a majority coalition with other parties, saying that – if they are the largest single party– the president should give Gantz a chance to form a government. Negotiations had already begun behind closed doors with other parties, she said. “The public voted for us,” she added.
Updated
Yuli Edelstein, the Knesset speaker and a senior member of Likud, says that the party will stick by Netanyahu, according to the Times of Israel. He has told reporters at the party’s election results event:
Likud is a united party and will continue to be so. Likud is the only democratic party in the political system, headed by an elected leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
I urge other party leaders not to try to determine who will be our leader — any such attempt will not succeed. Unity is the secret of the Likud’s power over the years and it will continue to be so in every situation.
Election day is always a national holiday in Israel and today it bright and sunny. Lots of people out on the beach in Tel Aviv and the streets were packed.
Just after midnight here and Blue and White are holding their election party in large hanger on the waterfront that appears to be a music venue. They are even playing trance music. But still pretty empty here, and reports suggest it’s the same at Likud. The exit polls have clearly concerned both parties.
The evening of the April election, there were many more supporters around by this time. And there are rumours going around that Gantz and Netanyahu might not even appear until tomorrow morning, when there is a clearer idea of the result.
Last time, they were both making victory speeches in the middle of the night.
Here’s a little more detail on the comments from the Israeli president, who has indicated a willingness to press party leaders to quickly form a new government.
Rivlin’s office said his nomination of a candidate would be guided in part by the need to avoid a third election after two votes in five months. It said he would meet with party leaders “after he receives a clear picture of the results, and as soon as possible”.
Israel’s largely ceremonial president assigns the task of forming a new government to the party leader most likely to assemble a majority coalition.
A senior Palestinian official says he hopes the next Israeli government “will focus on how to make peace,” the Associated Press reports. Saeb Erakat has said:
[Israel] cannot have peace or security without ending the occupation, without two states, the state of Palestine to live side by side with the state of Israel in peace and security on the 1967 lines.
In the closing days of his campaign, Netanyahu vowed to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank, which Israel seized in the 1967 war and which the Palestinians consider the heartland of their future state.
The peace process broke down shortly after Netanyahu was elected in 2009 and no serious talks have been held since then.
Lieberman, the possible kingmaker in the election, has repeated his call for a national unity government with Netanyahu’s Likud and Gantz’s Blue and White parties, Reuters reports.
Updated
The Haaretz columnist and Netanyahu biographer, Anshel Pfeffer, has written an article for the paper, in which he says that – while the exit polls may yet be wrong – the prime minister’s lustre is gone.
Netanyahu is going nowhere. His rival, Kahol Lavan head Benny Gantz, is nowhere near reaching a majority of his own as things stand. But one thing seems certain: Unless that miraculous turnaround between the exit polls and the actual results happens – the Netanyahu magic has been broken.
The politician who made it his business to win elections, who did it better than anyone else because he worked harder and always came up with a new strategy, has run out of dirty tricks. And the Israeli electorate has run out of patience.
Updated
Netanyahu’s strategy has been to build a majority coalition made up from right-wing parties and Jewish ultra-Orthodox politicians, who have wielded significant seats in previous parliaments.
Gantz’s plan has been to forge alliances with left-wing and centrist parties, including the remnants of the Labour party, which was once dominant but has since lost power.
However, exit polls – and I should keep repeating that they are unreliable – suggest those alliances will not tip either bloc over the magic 61 number of seats. That is because two major parties have not come out to say for sure that they will back either candidate.
The alliance of Arab parties mistrust both and, while they have indicated that it’s more likely they’ll back Gantz, the exit polls suggest their support alone would not be enough.
And then there’s Lieberman, who looks set to win enough seats to be a kingmaker.
This from Reuters’ correspondent in Jerusalem:
After Gantz was too quick to claim victory in the April election, this time around Blue and White's reticent. "Good night, everyone," Lapid told journalists. "We won't be responding until there are final results."
— Dan Williams (@DanWilliams) September 17, 2019
In Israeli elections, it is all about coalitions with smaller parties. Nobody is expecting Netanyahu or Gantz to win a majority in parliament. The thing to focus on instead is alliances with other parties.
The candidate with enough political allies to get 61 out of 120 seats is considered the winner. However, the exit polls that just came out – which can be very unreliable, I should say – suggest neither Netanyahu nor Gantz have enough seats to form even a coalition government.
Even with smaller parties that have already agreed to run with them, they will not have the numbers. It looks, from those exit polls, as if Israel is set for days or weeks of political deal-making.
Of course, by tomorrow morning, we’ll have results from actual counting that could be completely different.
The Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin, will meet party leaders “as soon as possible”, once the election results become clear, according to the Times of Israel.
According to the Jerusalem Post’s chief political correspondent, the leader of the political alliance of four Arab-dominated parties in Israel’s parliament is minded to recommend that Gantz be allowed to form a government.
Breaking: Joint List leader @AyOdeh says he may recommend to @PresidentRuvi that @gantzbe form a government.
— Gil Hoffman (@Gil_Hoffman) September 17, 2019
While it should be noted that the exit polls may – of course – be inaccurate, each has Gantz’s party sightly ahead; albeit without a majority of its own.
Updated
The Times of Israel is reporting a sombre atmosphere at the headquarters of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party – Jewish Power, in English.
The paper says exit polls suggest the party, which opposes marriage between Jews and Arabs and with which Netanyahu entered a pact prior to the previous election, has not met the threshold. It quotes a prominent member, Benzi Gopstein, as saying:
What is as clear as ever is that we were right all along when we said that without Otzma Yehudit there is no right wing government. Apparently, Bibi wants to make a leftist government with Gantz.
Updated
According to Reuters, Netanyahu spent much of Tuesday engaged in a last-gasp pitch for votes via live video feeds on social media.
At times, according to real-time viewership data at the bottom of the screen, fewer than 400 people were watching on a warm, sunny day when many Israelis were at the beach or shopping before the polls closed in the evening.
Sticking to the same campaign playbook for the past week, Netanyahu repeated a relentless message to supporters of his right-wing Likud party as if his political life depended on it: “Get out and vote.”
The alternative, he told them, claiming a strong turnout for left-leaning parties before any official statistics were in, would be a “disaster” – an end to his 10 consecutive years in power and a “leftist” government in charge.
Political commentators dubbed it Netanyahu’s “oy gevalt” strategy, Yiddish slang for warnings of impending doom.
Dressed in dark suit and tie, Netanyahu, 69, sat at a desk, a map of the Middle East in the background, and made his appeal in a rapid and imploring cadence worthy of fast-talking, “infomercial” pitchmen.
As aides off-camera handed him cellular phones, he fielded calls from Likud activists across Israel, grasping the devices in one hand while holding up a prop – an oversized ballot emblazoned with his party’s name – in the other.
“I am losing,” he told one supporter as a caption went up giving the man’s hometown as Nes Ziona, near Tel Aviv. Then it was onto the next call.
“What’s happening in Rosh Ha’ayin?” Netanyahu asked, mentioning the town where his strongest challenger, former armed Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White party, lives. “Gantz’s neighbourhood voted at 7am,” Netanyahu, answering his own question, told the caller.
Updated
Netanyahu’s battle for political survival looks set to continue for days or weeks, with the exit polls showing the race too close to call.
The surveys by Israeli television stations showed Netanyahu’s Likud with 31-33 of the seats, compared with 32-34 for the centrist Blue and White. The exit polls indicated that Netanyahu’s ally-turned-rival, ex-defence minister Avigdor Lieberman, could be the kingmaker, with the backing of his far-right Yisrael Beitenu party critical to the formation of any ruling coalition.
The ballot followed the inconclusive election in April, in which Netanyahu showed rare political weakness and failed to put together a government. Likud and Blue and White were tied at 35 seats in that election and would need to enlist support from smaller parties with a wide range of agendas for a coalition government.
According to Channel 12 TV’s poll, Netanyahu’s Likud is on course to win 33 of the 120 parliamentary seats, with Blue and White likely to take 34.
Election too close to call – exit polls
Israel’s election is too close to call, exit polls indicate, with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party virtually level with Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White.
According to the Reuters news agency, the exit polls by three Israeli broadcasters have Gantz slightly ahead or tying with Netanyahu, likely meaning days or weeks of wrangling over which candidate might form the next coalition government.
Updated
Guardian Jerusalem correspondent Oliver Holmes was earlier at the polling station where Netanyahu voted.
Hannah, 36, a government employee who refused to give last name, said she chose Avigdor Lieberman, as a tactical vote “to defeat Bibi” – as Netanyahu is widely known. The secularist has largely abandoned Netanyahu, accusing him of allying with ultra-Orthodox parties and leading the country towards a religious state.
“When I grew in Jerusalem, most neighbourhoods were secular. Now most
are religious,” she said. “We feel it every day in Jerusalem.” She said she was “more of a leftist” but was voting for the right-wing candidate to take down Netanyahu and make a stand against ultra-Orthodox power.
Shay, 54, said: “I voted for Bibi. He’s not perfect.”
Asked about the corruption allegations and if he believed them, he said: “Maybe a bit. I’ve voted for Likud for 30 years.”
His wife, who asked for anonymity, said there may be some truth in the
allegations but she was not concerned. She said she supports Netanyahu too, but voted for a political alliance of pro-settlement right-wing parties in the hopes of a coalition
government firmly on the right.
Benny Gantz
Gantz is a security hawk who who describes himself as a centrist but also supports annexing Palestinian land. He has promised he would employ “disproportionate force” to fight off frequent rocket attacks from Gaza. As with every Israeli election, security has been a key issue, with Netanyahu’s opponents attempting to paint him as indecisive and conflict-averse. When the prime minister was whisked away by his security team at a campaign event during a Palestinian militant rocket attack from Gaza, Netanyahu’s political foes jumped on the incident to portray him as weak.
He focused his campaign on Netanyahu’s alleged corruption and anti-democratic moves and outside his polling station on Tuesday, said his Blue and White party “will bring hope, we will be bring change, without corruption, without extremism”.
Exit poll due when voting finishes
Results are due shortly in Israel’s second election this year, following a campaign dominated by Benjamin Netanyahu and his vows to implement a far-right, ultranationalist agenda in exchange for a record fifth term as leader. His main rival is former army head Benny Gantz of the Blue and White party, who is neck and neck in polling with Netanyahu.
More than 6.3 million people are eligible to vote at polling stations that will close at 10pm (8pm BST), after which exit polls will be reported.
Facing the prospect of criminal corruption indictments and hoping to extend his unmatched stint in the prime minister’s office, Netanyahu has promised to declare up to a third of the occupied Palestinian territories as part of Israel if he is re-elected.
His campaign has also demonised Israel’s large Arab minority as a fifth column that endangers the country, allied itself with the extremist Jewish Power faction, and warned that the election could be stolen by fraud in Arab areas.
With a razor-thin margin expected between Netanyahu and Gantz, an inconclusive result where neither has a clear path to forming a coalition government is a potential outcome. That deadlock could plunge Israel into another political crisis, with the prospect of weeks of tense deal-making or even a third election.
A third key figure is Avigdor Lieberman, Netanyahu’s former right-hand man, whose refusal to join a coalition government with Jewish ultra-Orthodox parties in May resulted in the second vote. His staunchly secular stance against religious politicians appears to have drawn support from the nonreligious right wing, and he could come out as the kingmaker who decides Israel’s next prime minister.
