Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to hold the lead on Wednesday in Israeli elections, paving the way for a return to power thanks to a boost from the right-wing Religious Zionist party.
With 86% of the votes counted, the right-wing bloc appears to have gained 65 seats but this number will change as more votes are counted. However, all exit polls show Netanyahu’s bloc winning 62 seats, enough to form a coalition.
This would end the political stalemate that has plagued Israeli politics for the past three years.
If the Arab Balad party and far-left Meretz party, which fell far short of the electoral threshold earlier in the count, fail to pass, the right-wing bloc could win a 65-seat majority. However, Meretz is currently at the cusp of passing, with 3.23% of total votes. The Arab Balad party, which had long been predicted to fall short of the electoral threshold, now has 3.04% of total votes.
The Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am parties have both passed the electoral threshold.
The night’s strongest showing was by far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Religious Zionism, which emerged as the third-largest party. With exit polls showing a win of 14 or even 15 seats, which would make it the third-largest party in the Knesset.
The Chareidi parties are also poised to gain an unprecedented number of seats, with Shas expected to gain 11-12 seats and United Torah Judaism 8 seats.
The current count can still change significantly since voting slips are received by the Central Elections Committee from different areas of Israel at different times.
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Today Netanyahu, tomorrow Trump.
Hopefully , we will get rid of the dems here