Netanyahu Holds Solid Lead Over Gantz as More Than Half of Votes Counted

[brooklynite]

Source: Haaretz

Results of Israel's election began to emerge, with 60 percent of the votes counted. According to the votes counted thus fur, Netanyahu's Likud is in the lead with 38 Knesset seats, while Gantz's Kahol Lavan comes in second with 35 Knesset seats.

Religious party Shas is standing to gain eight seats, while United Torah Judaism receives seven. Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu gets six seats, as well as Labor Party, while Kulanu, Union of the Right-Wing Parties, Meretz and Hadash-Ta'al all receive five seats.

Read more: https://www.haaretz.com/whdcMobileSite/israel-news/elections/netanyahu-elections-gantz-vote-updates-results-1.7105719

[Tiggeroshii]

1. that sucks

[onit2day]

2. Agreed. This war criminal should be in a cell.

[Tiggeroshii]

3. hopefully the results turn themselves around soon

[JohnnyRingo]

4. Where's Putin when we needed him?

I'm not a fan of warhawk Beebe Net

[MFM008]

5. Another farce.

[leftynyc]

19. No farce - all votes are counted

There is no voter suppression. All the Arabs that stayed home and boycotted the vote are the same as Americans who whine that both parties are the same and use that as an excuse to stay home.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-israeli-arabs-who-refuse-to-vote-are-handing-netanyahu-victory-on-a-silver-platter-1.7081686

[louis-t]

28. You would think that after all they have been through

the Arab population there would have a huge turnout to vote.

[Drunken Irishman]

6. Exit polls appear to be wrong again.

[quakerboy]

16. Funny how that works.

[susanna]

35. Isn't it? n/t

[BigmanPigman]

7. Oh joy!

[SergeStorms]

8. Just what the world needs.

More power mad hawks, and Netanosferatu getting hawkier all the time. Someone else for Trump to be pals with. Trump's evangelical buddies must be elated. Everything is falling into place for armageddon and the "rapture".

[The Wielding Truth]

9. Any astrologists out there? What is wrong in the stars that things are so screwed up?

[PatSeg]

15. Seriously

We are going through a really horrific cycle and it appears to be worldwide. I suppose it is similar to the lead up to World War II, but with today's weapons and technology, the threat could be far more grave. It is really terrifying.

[The Wielding Truth]

30. I hope we can get out of this soon. I would like someone to read the charts and see a better future.

[PatSeg]

31. Sometimes I see a better future,

but I think it will take a lot of pain and chaos first. Unfortunately, I think what we are going through might be necessary for us to reach a better place, but I don't believe it is written in stone. Some days my long term view is relatively optimistic, other times, not so much.

[The Wielding Truth]

34. Thanks. Do you do charts?

[PatSeg]

36. Oh no, sorry

Sometimes I get the big overall picture of things and that's what I sense is happening and will happen.

[DallasNE]

10. When Was This Written?

About 4 hours ago I thought we had nearly complete results that showed Gantz with a razor thin lead but not likely to be able to form a government. Now we have a report with 60% of ballots counted. Is this a stale report? The polls closed around 10 hours ago.

[Drunken Irishman]

14. Those were initial exit polls.

[James48]

11. It isn't who votes.

It’s always who counts the votes that matters.

[Judi Lynn]

12. So god-awfully true. n/t

[brooklynite]

13. Do you have any evidence that the vote counting was improper?

Have any of the opposition Parties claim the count was inaccurate?

[leftynyc]

20. And your evidence

that the vote isn't true is where? How about most Arabs boycotted the vote?

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-israeli-arabs-who-refuse-to-vote-are-handing-netanyahu-victory-on-a-silver-platter-1.7081686

[watoos]

17. Don't know a thing about "Haaretz"

but right wing Trumpers used to quote from it all of the time.

[brooklynite]

18. It's liberal and the oldest newspaper in Israel.

Haaretz (Hebrew: הארץ ? (lit. "The Land [of Israel]", originally Ḥadashot Ha'aretz – Hebrew: חדשות הארץ?, IPA: [?adaˈʃot haˈʔaʁets] – "News of the Land (of Israel)" ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International New York Times. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet. In North America, it is published as a weekly newspaper, combining articles from the Friday edition with a roundup from the rest of the week.

It is known for its left-wing and liberal stances on domestic and foreign issues. As of 2016, the newspaper had a weekday exposure rate of 3.9% in Israel According to the Center for Research Libraries, among Israel's daily newspapers, "Haaretz is considered the most influential and respected for both its news coverage and its commentary."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haaretz

[leftynyc]

21. You're quite mistaken

Haaretz is a liberal paper and if the right wingers were quoting any paper in Israel, it was the Jerusalem Post. What you're seeing is what happens when people can't be bothered to vote.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-israeli-arabs-who-refuse-to-vote-are-handing-netanyahu-victory-on-a-silver-platter-1.7081686

[Israeli]

32. Three times you have posted the same link ......

…….you are killing me

We just crashed on the moon …...maybe you should blame that on the Arabs too

Or maybe read this :
https://972mag.com/likud-attempts-to-intimidate-palestinian-voters-with-hidden-ballot-cameras/140958/

Likud’s Election Day tampering is by no means an aberration. The party supported the raising of the election threshold, which was put in place to try and keep the Arab parties out of the Knesset. It is the same party responsible for the race-mongering of the 2015 election. The same party that tried to prevent an Israeli NGO from busing Bedouin citizens to the polling booths. The party whose election campaign was based on portraying the Palestinian candidates as supporters of terrorism who want to wipe out Israel.
There is a reason Likud ceaselessly focuses on the Palestinian public: it knows that without a Jewish-Arab alliance, there will be no way to replace the right.

[louis c]

22. Solid lead? It's a fucking tie. 35 seats apiece

No doubt, Likud hold the edge in forming a government, but that's far different than the false and misleading headline of a "Solid Lead"

[MosheFeingold]

23. You're thinking like an American

Counting votes in a Parliamentary system means you have to count the allies of that party.

Ironically, it would have been better for the Likud (Bibi's party) to have a better showing.

Likud is center-right and historically pretty rational -- think Mitt Romney -- you disagree, but he's an OK guy and not insane.

As certain more extreme right parties grow in power, and the Likud wains, the Likud has to ally itself with the more extreme voices to form a coalition government -- effectively swinging things farther to the right.

Bibi himself was, for a long time, pretty much a Mitt Romney -- but to form the government -- shifting more and more right.

Giving undue power to the fringe is one of the weaknesses of a Parliament system -- winner take all like in the USA tends to push people toward the (generally) more sane middle. (Not so much lately, but historically.)

[brooklynite]

25. Add to which, the Knesset has a very low threshold (3.5%) for a fringe Party to get seats.

[karynnj]

26. Mitt Romney on many issues, but a nationalist, corrupt as they come and a liar

I would say the only reason that he is as moderate as Romney on domestic issues is that Israel's history was far closer to socialist than the US ever was. Part of why the US sees Netanyahu as somewhat moderate is his demeanor, his soft spoken, articulate responses when he goes on US television.

[MosheFeingold]

27. Anologies always break down

If you take them too far.

Explaining Israeli politics is a bit like explaining long division using Roman Numerals; not for the faint of heart.

I do think it is a fair (if not perfect) example.

Likud and even Bibi were very much center right (i.e., Romneylike) -- remember, they tried the land-for-peace with Gush Katif and other areas, and tried to make things work. The trade was a failure (in that instance, due to idiotic actions of the Palestinians), and so the more belligerent voices took over and we are now at the present stalemate.

And, candidly, Bibi of the first term and Bibi of this fifth term are not the same person.

[karynnj]

29. Fair enough

Even trying to follow what the smaller parties are is hard. My husband and I had followed the election up till yesterday reading mainly Haaretz.

In retrospect, I should have agreed that Netanyahu was similar on a political scale as Romney. However, as a person, Netanyahu is far more corrupt. His obnoxious bigoted comments before the election were detestable.

[Baclava]

24. Israel election: Netanyahu wins fifth term as rival Gantz concedes

“This is a night of tremendous victory. Tremendous,” he said even before early poll counts had been released. “Tonight, I already began talks with the leaders of the rightwing parties, our natural partners.”

Several world leaders, especially nationalists, rushed to congratulate Netanyahu.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/10/israel-election-netanyahu-wins-fifth-term-as-rival-gantz-concedes

[Mosby]

33. if there is a bright spot

It's that the far right parties of Bennett, Shaked and Feiglin lost badly.

The reality is that the large majorities of Israelis are center-right or center-left.

Eta the bummer is that Labor-Meretz is dead.

[Iumberto]

37. He likely stole it

Voter suppression of Arabs.