Israeli Election Results (LIVE)(Update: Big Night for Bibi)
Looks likely that Benjamin Netanyahu will have another term as Prime Minister.
It was a big night for Likud and Netanyahu. The votes coming in are giving Likud an even bigger lead than the exit polls indicated.
Likud Leads with 30 Seats After 99% of Ballots Counted http://t.co/BBwn1CYN0V
— Arutz Sheva (@ArutzSheva_En) March 18, 2015
Against all odds:a great victory for the Likud. A major victory for the people of Israel!
— בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) March 17, 2015
This is a great victory for our nation. I'm proud of people of Israel who in the moment of truth knew what was important.
— בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) March 17, 2015
Every family, soldier, citizen, Jewish or not are important to me! We will form a strong government to work for them.
— בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) March 17, 2015
Smart of Obama to turn #Israel election into referendum on Obama. @sedaye_iran
— Sam Schulman ن (@Sam_Schulman) March 17, 2015
The predominantly Arab Joint List is set to become the third-largest faction in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. Unprecedented. #IsraElex
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) March 18, 2015
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Tweets from https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/lists/israel-election-2015
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We will lower housing prices & the cost of living. #Israelelex
— בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) March 17, 2015
It appears @Netanyahu overcame force of the Obama $ & staff. Praying for the peace of Jerusalem. http://t.co/ZquGpLCIoe #Israelelex
— Rick Santorum (@RickSantorum) March 18, 2015
It is to Israel's credit that it has remained a free democracy through years of chronic war. #IsraelElections pic.twitter.com/NJh3hmk7hQ
— Daniel Hannan (@DanHannanMEP) March 17, 2015
The 71.8% voter turnout in #IsraelElections was the highest since 1999, indicating the importance of these #IsraelEX & how much at stake.
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) March 18, 2015
Israeli English-language news is on the ground at Likud HQ, where the champagne has already started flowing:
Conservative outlets are already embracing a Netanyahu victory:
Happening Now on http://t.co/2RcaGg6hIT pic.twitter.com/kPavqiEMOX
— Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) March 17, 2015
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This Facebook video caused quite an uproar:
Meanwhile, both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas made pleas for Israeli Arabs to vote for the Joint Arab List:
Palestinian Authority TV broadcasting campaign ads for Joint Arab List running in Israeli lections. #Hamas also calling to get out and vote.
— Daniel Nisman (@DannyNis) March 17, 2015
The Palestinian people MUST vote in the next 2 hours! This is your chance to let @Ayman_Odeh_TJL @haneenzoabii and @Ahmad_tibi liberate you
— Ezzedeen Al-Qassam (@qassamenglish) March 17, 2015
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…but CNN is stirring the “racist appeal” pot, and launching criticism at Netanyahu’s campaign tactics:
Earlier in the night
The polls in Israel have just closed (10 p.m. Local; 4 p.m. Eastern)
Bibi or Bougie?
We have a live news feed in English from from i24 News and a live Twitter feed, below the fold.
We also will update as meaningful results are known.
But the key here is to understand that the vote count is only the beginning of the process.
Then we need to find out how many seats in the Knesset each party has won, and who will be asked by the President of Israel to form a majority coalition.
That process could take weeks.
If the exit polls are accurate, things could be interesting. Bibi did better than expected, as Likud was expected to be down 3-4 seats.
From Israel, I'm now hearing that @Netanyahu has already lined up coalition with 64 seats.
— Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) March 17, 2015
JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel's Netanyahu declares victory in tight election.
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) March 17, 2015
Here are the #Israel exit polls: Ch.2: Likud 28, Zionist Union 27. Ch.10: Likud 27, Zionist 27. CH 1: Likud 27, Zionist 27 too close to call
— Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) March 17, 2015
Netanyahu upset predictions of Likud collapse, but Likud declarations of victory are premature
— Chemi Shalev (@ChemiShalev) March 17, 2015
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Comments
Any result that is bad news to 0bama is good news to me.
you are too nice. any day that vile, petulant little liar gets his face rubbed in a pile of shit is a good day.
I share this sentiment.
Unfortunately, it highlights how low we have sunk because of obama, who hates America and is doing all he can to destroy it. It is stunning to have such a president.
The word is ‘traitor.’ The sooner we start using it, the quicker we’ll solve the problem of there being one in the White House.
Tightness of exits in Israel suggests Bibi’s shameful 11th hour demagoguery may have swayed enough votes to save him. But at what cost?
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) March 17, 2015
Ah, the sweet, sweet tears of a hypocritical loser…
like ambrosia, the food of the gods…
Comment from the Twitter feed:
” Lahav Harkov @LahavHarkov
In the last election, Likud has a much bigger lead and Likudniks were sad. Now they’re tied and everyone is jumping for joy.”
Evidently this person hasn’t a clue how difficult it is to defeat the Obama machine…anywhere.
I’m sorry Professor, but it seems to me like the Jewish people are suicidal. Here in America they vote for all the same programs that brought Adolph Hitler to power: The primacy of the State, gun control, socialism, and leaders who want to destroy Israel. Now I read that in Israel they’re allowing Palestinians to vote??? The mind boggles…
How could they stop them from voting? Israel’s basic law forbids discrimination between Jews and gentiles. This is nothing new; it’s been the case for as long as Israel has existed. It might not have been a wise decision 67 years ago, but it was what the socialists who founded Israel wanted, so it’s what they did.
Maybe the candidates running for the Republican nominee will understand that America wants to hear the candidates speak from their hearts and not from their scripts that are poll driven. Lay it on the line like PM Netanyahu did and maybe one of them will distinguish him/herself as a leader.
so will the final vote tally be emailed to Hillary?
For a Zionist/racist/apartheid state, the Arabs have a potentially pretty big say in the next government.
Praying For BiBi! Israel needs him, the USA needs him, the World needs him!!
Too bad these Elections are contaminated by the “ObamaMinion Dirty Tricks.” Although it is illegal to “PAY” a person in New Jersey for their vote on Election Day, I have seen first hand, voters acknowledging that they receive “payment” for voting the Democrat Party Ticket! The “System” for undermining the electoral process is very well organized and implemented. For those who doubt this corruption and voter fraud, well they are the “enablers.”Corruption requires those
willing to remain silent and look the other way. The current residents in the whitehouse
want all opposition to just give up and shut-up.
However, considering how the LI Blog has grown, there are more voices for liberty and freedom, now more then ever.
My late neighbor was from NJ and a lifelong democrat. He told me once how when he was serving as a poll worker, he and his fellow dems would get the lone Republican to go out for coffee and, while he was gone, he and his buddies would stuff the ballot box.
Cool. May right-wing Jews and like-minded continue to prevail.
“From Israel, I’m now hearing that @Netanyahu has already lined up coalition with 64 seats.”
— Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) March 17, 2015
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Monica Crowley is Awesome! If you have not had the pleasure of listening to her nationally syndicated radio show, tune in because you will hear from a very astute and entertaining conservative political analyst.
Monica is witty and shreds the opposition with logic and tenacity. I am a fan of Monica for many of the same reasons that I find LI to be outstanding. Reasoned and powerful arguements and intelligent discussion prevail (even when tempers flare at times when the trolls show up).
Wonderful news indeed!
Mr. Netanyahu,
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance
upon you and give you peace.
God bless Israel!
Amen and Amen.
And BiBi’s opponent used the phrases “hope” and “change.”Hmmm.
Drudge is reporting that Bibi won. I hope that’s true.
I’m guessing the news of Obama trying to influence their election actually helped Netanyahu in the last few days. Certainly in the US Democrats didn’t want Obama involved in their campaigns.
He’s an arrogant, snotty little bitch who is hated by everyone. Watch the long knives come out on the left as soon as he leaves power. It will be fun to watch.
You only need to look at Obama’s treatment of Honduras to see what is in store for Israel.
If Netanyahu came to parity with Zionist Union (Labor), or perhaps even is up one seat over them, that’s an enormous win. You have to remember the balance of power in Israel: there are 4 leftist parties and something like 10 major Right parties.
If Netanyahu has 27 (or better, 28), that means he only needs 33 members to form a government. The rumor is that he has 36 parliament ministers on board with forming a government. The right wing / religious parties make up 26 of those seats (Jewish Home, Shas, Yisrael Beiteinu and United Torah Judaism). The question is where the other 10 come from (my guess is that it is Kulanu (10 seats), as I don’t see Yesh Atid (12 seats) playing well with the other ultra-right orthodox parties without some cajoling).
The Joint List party (Arabs) have basically said they won’t support EITHER candidate (Likud or Labor), so that’s ~10 seats basically gone from the equation.
With the numbers the way they are, I don’t see how Zionist Union can form a government. There simply are not enough votes of non-rightist aligned parties.
Since you seem to know more about this process, which I know very little about. What happens if they can’t “form a government”?
Also, I hope the OFA kiddies are crying their eyes out.
Any government has to have the support of at least 61 MKs. First Rivlin will give Netanyahu a chance to put together a government that can attract 61 votes. If he fails to do so within a few weeks, then Rivlin will have to give Herzog a chance to do so. If neither one can do it, Rivlin will probably put the two of them together and tell them to work someting out between them, but if that fails then there will have to be a new election.
I have no idea why you are getting down-votes for that response. It seems quite succinct and accurate to me. The “Winning” party gets a crack at forming a government, because they’re going to have the best shot at it (fewest number of “coalition” partnerships needed), followed by the second leading party, then followed by anybody else who comes to the President of Israel and says “I think our party can form a government.”
Generally each group gets a certain period of time to negotiate with the elected ministers (usually a couple of weeks).
If NOBODY can get to 61, the President of Israel will sit down with the two (or sometimes 3) biggest parties, and will say “try to get along” and you sometimes then end up with a “unity” government. The problem there is that you have all sorts of divided loyalties and usually cabinet-level posts working at cross-purposes to each-other, depending on who the minister is loyal to.
If all else fails, the President dissolves the Knesset and calls for new elections.
What I don’t get is that if the Arabs were bused, what was the point of i? Some idiotic importation of O’s strategy?
What don’t you get? The Arabs got their vote out big time, and seem to have ended up with 14 seats, which is unprecedented.
Got the answer on Tweeter: to possibly prevent a truly right wing coalition from forming.
I don’t get the question. Why did they get out their vote? They did it to get the massive result they achieved. Why else? And if Herzog had a chance to put together a government, they would have supported it from the outside, and extracted a heavy price for that.
What’s so hard to understand? Busing implies grand strategy. If they are not going to form government with the Jewish parties why bother?
“Busing implies grand strategy”?! What are you talking about? It’s basic politics. And the point was simply to increase their own voting strength in the new Knesset. The big story was simply that they had managed to boost their turnout to an unprecedented level.
For as long as I can remember the combined strength of the Arab sector was 10 seats, split among 3 or 4 parties. It was estimated that another seat or two’s worth of Arabs voted for mainstream parties, and the rest didn’t vote. This year all the Arab parties got together, mounted a joint campaign to persuade Arabs to vote. I don’t know whether the number that voted for mainstream parties has dropped — we will find that out soon — but there’s no question that more Arabs voted yesterday than ever before, and that it was the result of this effort. And there’s also no question that with 14 seats the Arabs will be a force that will make itself felt in the Knesset. Unless they break up and start infighting, of course. One can always hope.
I believe the Arab parties joined together to form one party. It is this strategy that gave them the greater number of seats.
Simon Schama ✔ @simon_schama
The No-2 state solution ever will also cause deep divisions among America’s politically liberal Jewish community
Retweeted by Richard C. Schneider
And yet, the 2-state solution will never happen because the purpose of Hamas is to annihilate the Jews. This is distinct from desiring a palestinian state. http://middleeast.about.com/od/palestinepalestinians/a/me080106b.htm
I am relieved and delighted that sense has prevailed. The Israelis have not made the mistake of dumping their Churchill.
This is a very disappointing result. Meretz passed the threshold and Yachad failed. If I had been a voter, my vote would have gone down the toilet due to this horrible and undemocratic rule. Yes, I would have voted Yachad, because if I didn’t and they fell one vote short of the threshold I’d blame myself for every bad thing that happened until the next election. I’d feel a lot less bad if my next choice fell one vote short of an extra seat because I didn’t vote for them.
But it shouldn’t be like that. Votes for parties that cross the threshold are not wasted; if the party they were cast for can’t use them, they go to a like-minded partner, according to the agreements filed beforehand. This is a very imperfect system; really the voter should be able to indicate his own preference about where his vote should go, and there should be multiple fallback positions, not just one. Australia manages this very well, and there’s no reason Israel couldn’t do the same. But at least they have something to take care of the extra votes for those parties that cross the threshold. So what excuse is there for not doing the same for those that don’t? Why couldn’t Yachad’s votes go to its partner? (OK, I see Yachad didn’t manage to file an agreement with anyone, but that’s another flaw in the system. Why is it necessary to pair up like that, and why is it necessary to have an agreement? Why can’t each party just say where it wants its unused votes to go, as they do in Australia? If you don’t want to allow individual voters to do it, at least allow the parties to.)
Of course it’s also disappointing that Kachlon got so much support for his quasi-socialist economic agenda, and will now be finance minister so he can implement it. So much for free markets in Israel.
Moshe Feiglin, the only true libertarian in the outgoing Knesset, sat this election out. He’s trying to put together a new party to contest the next election. But today’s results don’t augur well for that.
Who the #3!! is voting this down? Do we have any Meretz supporters here, God forbid?! Or maybe some of Kachlon’s socialists?!
Six down-votes, and no up-votes? What is wrong with people here? I don’t usually pay attention to them, but you’d think this was a coven of Meretz supporters, or of petty socialists who like what Kachlon wants to do.
How can people here be happy that Meretz survived the cutoff and has 4 seats, and Kachlon has 10, while Yachad missed the cutoff by a few thousand votes, so 3% of the total vote, given to the solid right, gets thrown down the toilet? How can this be either good or just?
Life is good. God will not abandon Israel.
Bibi should leak that :”I received a congratulatory call fro President Obama, but I was unable to talk at that time as I was filling out my NCAA bracket. I KNEW he would understand”
God bless Israel!
It looks like the Jewish people are coming awake to the danger that has faced them continually. Please God, let them abandon the death wish that many seem to have. Let them fight back against those who would drive them to the ovens.
It’s wonderful to know that Netanyahu is back. Here’s mud in your eye, Obama!
And you trust Netanyahu not to sell the farm?! Ask the residents of Chevron how far he can be trusted. Or the former residents of Gush Katif. If you have a problem with Boehner, or with Lindsay Graham, Bibi’s worse. And now he’s going to turn the economy over to Kachlon, so say goodbye to the economic boom.
Legitimate concern. At the end of the day, events in the world may have overshadowed the election. Israel is surrounded by individuals, organizations, governments, and various bands of thugs, murderers, zealots, and barbarians of all stripe who openly declare that their goal is to destroy Israel, Jews, Christians, gays, their own history and, interestingly, each other. Daily, they present the world with examples of exactly how it will be accomplished using both the most crude and most advanced weapons available to them (so, why not give them a nuclear weapon?).
I don’t believe Bibi overstated the case for us All in his speech to Congress last week – big “A” all. Great swaths of the Middle east are smoldering ruin and it hosts millions of refugees. Europe, Russia, the Scandanavian countries, and Turkey are in an unlearning process and reverting to historic character and form. Sub-Saharan Africa is a murderous chaos, the UK is a babbling flock of geese, and America has a leader and administration that are hell bent on letting this all continue as though it were all nothing more than a spoiled, petulant child throwing a harmless temper tantrum.
Fixing the economy may be a higher consideration to folks who can’t see the rockets and smell the smoke.
If true, I wonder if there will be any glassware left in the White House!
The Bibi-sitter is back! Excellent news for Israel, and the world.
A scintilla of light in this darkening world. Imagine to be brought to reality that evil forces within our government tried to smother this light. At once sickening, and inspiring.
Warrior, Leader, Intellectual, Braveheart, Strong Voice of Sanity & Realism, Sir Winston for Our Age!!!!
VAST TITANIUM BALLS..!!
…as opposed to Obama’s VAST Testicular Concavity..!!
Thank You, GOD.
A very good result. When they dissect the election results, I hope they will ask voters if Obama’s anti-Bibi actions and biases had any role in the vote. I’m betting that his meddling actually helped Netanyahu quite a bit. Beyond the election though Netanyahu’s speech to Congress was Churchill like in its warning to the world about risks and dangers. We need to pay attention.