Polls in Israel closed at 10 p.m., 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, and votes are expected to be counted by dawn, but it could take weeks to learn if Benjamin Netanyahu will retain power and become the country’s longest-serving prime minister, despite being under threat of indictment for breach of trust.
Exit polls tracked with final preelection surveys showing Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party neck and neck with Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White coalition. Israeli television station KAN had Netanyahu winning 37 seats to Gantz’s 36, while Channel 12 had Gantz with 37 to Netanyahu’s 33. Channel 13 had the pair tied with 36 each.
Both leaders declared victory on Twitter. Netanyahu tweeted, “The right-wing bloc led by the Likud won a clear victory. I thank the citizens of Israel for the trust. I will start forming a right-wing government with our natural partners as soon as tonight.” Gantz wrote, “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 began the day on the beach, but the 69-year-old, who is seeking a fifth term in office, wasn’t there to work on his tan. “I am here at the beach, and there are a lot of people here,” he said. “But if they stay at the beach and not go and vote, they will wake up tomorrow with Yair Lapid heading a left-wing government.” Lapid, a former finance minister, heads the Yesh Atid party, part of Gantz’s coalition.
Election-watchers dubbed Netanyahu’s strategy of scare tactics the “gevalt” campaign, using a Yiddish expression of doom.
Netanyahu warned voters to “look at the slips carefully before voting.” He claimed that Blue and White supporters marked the back of ballots for Likud so they wouldn’t be counted in the final tally. Police said they were investigating “a small number of complaints of voter fraud,” citing four people who said they went to the polls and were told people had already voted in their names. Police also received a complaint about Likud observers bringing cameras to polling stations in areas with large Arab populations. Netanyahu said cameras should be everywhere to ensure a “kosher” vote.
No party in Israel has ever won a majority in the 120-seat parliament, and leaders must build a coalition to gain the premiership. Kahol Lavan Party head Gantz, a 59-year-old former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff and lieutenant general, leads the Blue and White coalition, named for the colors of the country’s flag, with two other retired generals. The political novice is expected to reach out to left-wing parties, including Labor and Meretz, if his group gets enough votes to make him the likely next leader, while Netanyahu will partner with the New Right and the Union of Right-Wing Parties. The latter includes the Jewish Power Party, which has faced criticism for its anti-Arab platform.
President Reuven Rivlin will invite Netanyahu or Gantz to form a government, looking not just at Tuesday’s tally but also at the likely strength of the men’s coalitions. In 2009, Likud won 27 seats to Kadima’s 28, but it was Netanyahu who was asked to lead the government after it became clear Kadima head Tzipi Livni could not form a coalition. He’s held the position ever since, previously serving in the role from 1996 to 1999. Israelis vote for parties, not candidates, and parties that get at least 3.25 percent of the vote appoint members of the Knesset based on their share of the tally.
Coalitions can take time to coalesce — it took Netanyahu over a month to assemble his current government in 2015. Whoever Rivlin asks will have 42 days to form one.
KAN and Channel 13’s exit polls predicted Netanyahu’s coalition would triumph: KAN had it at 64 seats to 56 seats for Gantz’s group, and Channel 13 had them at 66 to 54. Channel 12 predicted a tie of 60 seats each.
Much is at stake in the election — besides Netanyahu’s fate, the vote could decide whether Israel annexes the West Bank and puts the region’s 2.6 million Palestinian residents under Israeli control — but turnout looked to be slightly lower than it was the last time voters went to the polls. As of 6 p.m. local time, 52 percent of Israel’s 6.3 million eligible voters had marked their ballots; 54.6 percent had by that time in 2015. Turnout by Arabs, who make up about a fifth of eligible voters, was particularly low — in some areas, less than 20 percent at 5 p.m.
Ayman Odeh, Hadash Party leader, urged Arabs to vote in an election day tweet. “We are continuing in full force, going door to door and calling on people to get out and vote,” he wrote. “Our nightmare, which is the prime minister’s fantasy – is a Knesset without Arab representation, and suddenly that’s looking like a realistic possibility. I know that ‘Gevalt’ is a Yiddish word, but worrying about our children’s future is universal.”
Netanyahu has developed warmer relationships with Arab leaders than his predecessors did. Leaders of Arab states have met openly with the prime minister, something they weren’t willing to do until recently.
Days before the election, Netanyahu announced that if he returned to power, Israel would annex the occupied West Bank, which Palestinians have always hoped to make part of a Palestinian state. Fewer than half of Israelis support a two-state solution, a shift from just a few years ago.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas didn’t name names, but on election day declared, “We don’t need any government that doesn’t believe in peace.” Speaking in Ramallah in the West Bank, he said he hoped whoever won would help Israel “come to the negotiating table.”
But he added that Palestinians would reject any deal President Trump’s administration brokered. White House adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner has been working on a peace plan but said he wouldn’t release it until after the Israeli election. His father-in-law might have given Netanyahu a bit of boost late last month, when he announced the United States would recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel annexed from Syria in 1981.
Israel’s attorney general announced last month that he is considering seeking an indictment against Netanyahu for bribery and breach of trust. It’s alleged the prime minister got positive press coverage from telecom giant Bezeq in exchange for regulatory changes. Netanyahu has called the investigation into the matter an “unprecedented witch hunt.”
