The official final results aren’t expected until tomorrow, but the polls have closed for Israel’s parliamentary election, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-Beiteinu list continuing to stumble, and projected at 31 seats, a huge loss for a pair of parties that holds 42 seats in the outgoing Knesset.
The projections from different polling outlets all show roughly the same thing: that projections of major gains for extremely far-right Jewish Home didn’t materialize, while Yesh Atid, the brand new centrist party, surged far beyond any projections, winning 18-19 seats and the spot of number two party.
While the final results could swing a seat or two this way or that, it seems clear that neither the far-right bloc nor the center-left are going to have a 61 seat majority by themselves, and the Ultra-Orthodox parties, particularly Shas, are once again in the position of king-maker, able to break the virtual tie and install whichever side offers them the most.
This is going to be a difficult sell either way, as Likud-Beiteinu and Jewish Home both seemed to go out of their way to alienate the religious right, with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman constantly questioning their loyalty, and Jewish Home leader Bennett blasting Shas repeatedly in the hopes of taking votes from them.
Shas ran an extremely ugly campaign, and repeatedly had to withdraw advertisements that were overtly racist against Africans and Russian Jews. Still, in the end they got that same 10-11 seats they always get, and that’s going to be good enough to make them a major power broker.
Is the demographic Area C plan beginning to backfire? The hilarious thing about this is that now all of a sudden even a small minority of Palestinian Israelis can turn elections. A super majority of united people can dictate policy. However, Israeli society now seems far from united. Watch for increasing attempts to disenfranchise Arab voters. That's the only way "Israel" can keep going.
hmmm just imagine what it would be like if a unified Palestinian party were permitted to vote for the government that occupies them for how long now, isn't there like a limit on the item one country to not let those they occupy vote? These guys are open criminals blocking yet more land, with no apologies.. i really hope i live to see the end of apartheid..
It is a shame that the people of Israel failed to dump the man. Bibi clearly is a failed leader and he should be replaced before there is no hope for Israel. How Israel will keep the arabs from voting will be known shortly. I suspect they will try to force them out of the country. If they do as they did to form Israel it will be a disaster to democracy. The minority is not who leads in democracies but they have corrupted the system to do that. Israel will be unable to continue to play the victim card since most understand Israel is a very rich nation at least for the chosen. I think it is time for the USA to take care of its veterans over sending money to Israel. I would cut the $110,000,000 fighter jet first. Just why should the USA give 5 billion dollars of fighter jets who use can only be aggression to other nations.