Benjamin Netanyahu wins a fourth term at the helm of the government of Israel. His party, the Likud, surprisingly wins the elections obtaining 29 seats in the new Israeli Knesset, while the Zionist Union of Labor Isaac Duke stops at 24. With the counting of ballots completed overnight (99,5% count), the United Arab List it established itself as the third party, with 14 seats.
That of Netanyahu, the outgoing premier, was one comeback who disavowed the forecasts of the polls, sure of a head-to-head between "Bibi" and Herzog's centre-left. On the contrary, the Zionist Front created with the centrist Tsipi Livini still had a few seats ahead over the weekend.
In the final sprint of the campaign, Netanyahu has swerved to the right, assuring on the eve of the vote that with him at the helm of the government "a Palestinian state will not be born", insisting on the problem of security, on the indivisibility of the capital Jerusalem, on the nuclear threat from Iran. Arguments that evidently proved to be successful and probably allowed him to avoid a dispersion of votes towards other smaller right-wing parties.
After a vitriolic election day, in which the Likud leader launched a call to vote to counter the great mobilization of Arab-Israelis, accusing the center-left of taking voters to the polling stations by bus, President Reuven Rivlin called for the creation of a national unity government and new elections very soon to avert "the disintegration of Israel's democracy". But as head-to-head exit polls veered towards an increasingly clear Likud lead, Netanyahu floated the prospect of a new right-wing executive in alliance with "the parties of the national camp".
The outgoing prime minister said he was "proud of the greatness of Israel" and the "right decision taken". Furthermore, during the night he said he had already spoken to all the leaders of the right, to ask for "a government, without delay".
As for the other political formations, behind the first three parties come the centrists of Yesh Atid (There is a future) of Yar Lapid, who will have 11 deputies (eight fewer than in the previous assembly). Eight seats were obtained by HaBayit HaYehudi (Jewish Home), a nationalist party that refers to the settlers, while the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic Shas stopped at 7 seats compared to the 11 won two years ago. Seven deputies also for the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism.
On the other hand, a bad result for the hawk Avigdor Lieberman: Yisrael Beitenu (Israel is our home) will have less than half of the seats in the new legislature, 6 instead of 13. Meretz's left wing is also bad, from 6 to four seats .
Moshe Khalon, a former Minister of Communications who became popular for having imposed cuts in telephone tariffs, seems to have won his bet to become the needle in the balance. His new center creature, Kulanu (All of us), wins 10 seats. The party leader has already said, with still uncertain results, that he is ready to go into government with both Netanyahu and the centre-left.
Meanwhile the chief negotiator of the PNA, Saeb Erakat, said that the Palestinians will step up their diplomatic efforts and will appeal to the International Criminal Court to bring Israeli leaders to trial: "It is clear that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will form the next government, so let's clearly say that we we will address the International Criminal Court in The Hague and accelerate and intensify our diplomatic efforts”.
