Netanyahu declares victory in Israeli vote

‘We won thanks to our belief in our path’

JERUSALEM • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared victory on Tuesday in Israel’s third election in less than a year, after television exit polls showed him just a seat short of a governing majority in parliament.

A win for Netanyahu, 70, after inconclusive ballots in April and September, would be testimony to the political durability of Israel’s longest-serving leader, who fought the latest campaign under the shadow of a looming corruption trial.

It would also pave the way for the right-wing Netanyahu to make good on his pledge to annex, after the election, Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, and the region’s Jordan Valley, under a peace plan presented by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Palestinians have rejected the proposal, saying it was killing their dream of establishing a viable state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel’s three main TV channels projected in exit polls that Netanyahu’s rightist Likud and like-minded parties would capture 60 of parliament’s 120-seats, just one short of a majority, in Monday’s vote. In an updated exit poll, Israel’s Channel 13 dropped the figure to 59.

During an acrimonious campaign which focused more on character than on policy, right-wing and religious parties had pledged to join a Likud-led coalition government. But if the 60-seat projection held true, after actual results later on Tuesday, Netanyahu would still have to enlist other allies in coalition negotiations.

A Likud spokesman said the prime minister would deliver a late-night victory speech in Tel Aviv.

Ahead of the address, Netanyahu wrote on Twitter: “We won thanks to our belief in our path and thanks to the people of Israel.”

Netanyahu’s main challenger, former armed forces chief Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White party, stopped short of conceding defeat in his own posting on Twitter, telling supporters he would “continue to fight for the right path, for you.”

The exit polls showed Likud taking between 36 and 37 parliamentary seats to 32 or 33 for Blue and White — a gap that would make it harder for Gantz to put together a governing coalition.

Netanyahu’s re-election bid has been complicated by his indictment on charges of bribery, breach of trust and fraud over allegations he granted state favours worth millions of dollars to Israeli media barons in return for favourable press coverage and that he wrongfully received gifts.

The first trial of a sitting prime minister in Israel is due to begin on March 17. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing.