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| PM Netanyahu retains solid grip on Israel, humiliating western pundits who longed for his exit |
Netanyahu's Likud Party has at the latest count scored 36 seats of the 120-member Knesset, Israel's parliament,while the main opposition Zionist Union, fronted by the Labour leader, Isaac Herzog garnered a distant 24 seats. The election has thus sealed Bibi Netanyahu's fourth time in office as Israels PM.
The number of seats secured by the Likud was a greater than total predicted by Tuesday evening's exit polls. Mr Netanyahu, foreseeing his victory had hailed the election as a "great victory" after they showed the party tying with the Zionist Union.
A dejected Mr Herzog - who had presented himself as a prime minister-in-waiting - apparently conceded defeat on Wednesday morning and congratulated him on the election results. The outcome confounded opinion poll predictions that consistently showed Likud trailing the Zionist Union. Mr Netanyahu appeared to have won over many voters who were considering deserting to other Right-wing parties with a last-minute media blitz in which he warned that Israel was about to fall prey to a new Left-wing government that would sell out the country's security interests. The gulf between the opinion poll forecasts and the final result may also have been explained by a tendency of many Israeli voters - up to 20 per cent according to analysts - to decide only at the last minute. The last opinion surveys were published last Friday, three days before polling day.
The result seemed to pave the way for Mr Netanyahu to form a new Right-wing government with the help of smaller nationalist and religious parties. It will also put Mr Netanyahu on course to complete a fourth term in which he could become Israel's longest-serving prime minister, breaking the record set by David Ben Gurion, the country's inaugural premier.
According to the Telegraph, Netanyahu's new government is likely to be set on a fresh collision course with the Obama administration after Mr Netanyahu appealed to Right-wing voters during the campaign by abandoning a previous commitment to recognise a Palestinian state. Much will now depend on Moshe Kahlon, whose centrist Kulanu party won 10 seats after campaigning on economic problems faced by the middle-classes trying to cope with Israel's punitive living costs. Mr Kahlon, a former Likud minister under Mr Netanyahu, has been cast in the role of kingmaker - able to tip the balance either way in a parliament balanced between Left and Right. Additional info from the Telegraph
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