According to the partial count, the opposition leader’s right-religious bloc will pick up 65 seats, though the prospective electoral map could still change significantly if the Meretz and Balad parties cross the threshold to enter the Knesset.
By JNS
With 3,863,484 votes officially counted, or nearly 80% of the total ballots cast in Israel’s elections on Tuesday, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-religious bloc appears primed for a victory.
According to Central Elections Committee (CEC) figures released on Wednesday morning, Netanyahu’s bloc will pick up 65 seats, though this number and the prospective electoral map could still change significantly if the far-left Meretz and anti-Zionist Arab Balad parties enter the Knesset.
Both parties are currently sitting below the minimum 3.25% electoral threshold to enter the next parliament.
The CEC’s partial results thus far confirm exit polls, which predicted Netanyahu’s return to the Prime Minister’s Office.
According to the exit polls on all three major Israeli channels, Netanyahu will be able to form a governing coalition of at least 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.
His prospective coalition partners are the Religious Zionism Party, Shas and United Torah Judaism.
Netanyahu early on Wednesday hailed his bloc’s apparent victory and thanked his supporters for their “magnificent expression of faith.”
“It’s become clear once again that the Likud is the largest party in Israel, above all the other parties by a wide margin,” the opposition leader said.
The nation, he continued, “wants another way. It wants security. It wants to lower the cost of living. It wants strength. It doesn’t want shame. It doesn’t want to lower its head. It wants an upright stance. It wants political understanding, but with firmness.”
He added: “You know what else it wants? To return the national pride that was taken from us. And this we’ll bring as well.”
Israelis wanted leadership that would worry about the country’s soldiers and wouldn’t “sacrifice lives for nothing,” he said, one that would operate out of “concern for every citizen, every soldier and … every mother and father that places in our hands their sons and daughters.”
He vowed to restore security, lower the cost of living, “expand the circle of peace” and “return Israel to its place as a rising power among the nations.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will designate a candidate to form a government by Nov. 8, and that candidate will almost certainly be Netanyahu.
The Likud leader, who served in the role from 1996-1999 and again from 2009-2021, will then have four weeks to form a coalition, with the possibility of a two-week extension.