Israel voted: Dramatically undecided

It was a real choice: between a nationalist Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu and a liberal Jewish state under Benny Gantz, the leader of the center alliance "blue-white". The result: initially dramatically unclear.

On Tuesday, 6,339,729 million Israelis had the opportunity to cast their ballots in more than 10,000 polling stations to elect the future 120 members of the 21st Knesset, and thus the next prime minister.

• Incumbent Netanyahu could not beat his challenger Gantz in any of the three TV projections - and yet declared his victory. The reason: He could form three out of four projections, a government majority with right and religious parties.
• But also Benny Gantz announced his electoral success. He lies with his election alliance in all projections before the conservative Likud - but whether he can form a government with some coalition partners, is open to questionable. To form a government, 61 mandates are needed.

In Israel, election day is a holiday. Apparently, many voters used the day off to go to the sea and enjoy the sun on the beach of Tel Aviv at over 20 degrees. Voter turnout was lower than in 2015.

REUTERS

The beach of Tel Aviv on election day

Especially among the Arab Israelis. They make up more than 15 percent of eligible voters. At the last election four years ago, voter turnout was still around 63 percent among them. The result: In the 20th Knesset, the Arab parties had as many seats as never before since the founding of the state in 1948. Now, according to initial polls, only about 44 percent.

One possible reason: disillusionment. In the summer parliament voted after heated debates on the so-called National State Law. This defines the only democracy in the Middle East as exclusively a Jewish national state and thus unambiguously discriminates against the various Arab minorities - Muslims, Christians, and Druze.

Likud

National Conservative Party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was founded in 1973 as a list of six parties, but merged in the late eighties to a community party. Since then, the Likud Party has regularly, if not always, appointed the Prime Minister. Especially under Netanyahu, the party moved far to the right and became more populist. Economically more liberally oriented, the party stands for the settlement development in the West Bank. Their nationalistic character has recently been clearly expressed in the highly contested national state law. Among other things, it defines Israel as an explicitly Jewish state, reiterating the status of the whole of Jerusalem as the capital, and denying Arab status as a state language. In the current Knesset Likud is represented with 30 deputies.

List "Blue and White"

The alliance, founded only this year, is politically located in the middle. He is given the best chance to replace Netanyahu. The list is headed by former Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and former Finance Minister Yair Lapid. The two want to share in the event of an election victory, the offices of the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and exchange after half of the regular term. The alliance is complemented by Moshe Ya'alon, former Defense Minister, and the popular ex-military Gabi Ashkenazi. The unifying bracket is the "fight" against the head of government. Leading candidate Gantz is anti-Netanyahu, but has ruled out a coalition with him only in the event of an actual corruption allegation against the prime minister. He is more open to reconciliation with the Palestinians, but his party made it clear he did not want to fundamentally restrict settlements.

labor party

The Social Democratic Party has existed since 1968 as a merger of the traditional Mapai, Achdut Haawoda and Rafi. In her story, she introduced some powerful premiers like Yitzhak Rabin or Shimon Peres. Also several presidents came from their ranks. The party was one of the first large groups to campaign for negotiations with the Palestinians and a Palestinian state of their own. From 2009 to 2011 she was part of a Likud-led coalition, since then she is alone or as a liaison in opposition. In 2015, she won along with Hatnua as the list "Zionist Association" under party leader Yitzhak Herzog and Hatnua counterpart Tzipi Livni 24 seats, so after all, second strongest force behind Likud. Now she is back on her own, while Hatnua has withdrawn from the election.

Shas

The party of Sephardic Jews, that is, from North Africa or other Near Eastern countries of immigrant Jews, belongs to the religious camp. Since its founding in 1984, the group has been a junior partner of right or left governments. In the 2015 election, she won seven seats and currently puts two ministers in the cabinet Netanyahu.

"Our house Israel"

Formerly founded in 1999, the secular right-wing party of former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has its supporters, especially with immigrants from the former Soviet Union. She has a tough policy against Palestinians. In 2015, she won six mandates and participated in the coalition of Benjamin Netanyahu. In November, Lieberman resigned from office in protest of a Hamas-agreed ceasefire. His party could fail, according to surveys on the pause clause.

United Torah Judaism

The list is a merger of two ultra-orthodox parties. It wants to strengthen the religious character of the state of Israel and advocates, for example, a strict ban on Shabbat or compulsory military service for ultra-orthodox men. In 2015 she won six seats and is part of the governing coalition under Netanyahu.

"The New Rights"

The two prominent ministers, Naftali Bennet and Ayelet Shaked, have just re-founded the party after turning their backs on their hitherto home, the national religious settler party, the Jewish Home. The party wants to address both religious and secular voters. A separate Palestinian state should be prevented. Also, the current campaign is directed against the supposedly too liberal judgments of the Supreme Court in Jerusalem.

Association of right-wing parties

New Alliance of Right Parties "Jewish Home", "National Union" and extreme right "Jewish Strength". Prime Minister Netanyahu had co-opted his coalition partner, the National Religious Settlers' Jewish Home Party, into the Alliance to ensure that the right-wing bloc was not weakened by the failure of the various parties at the 3.25 percent hurdle. The "Jewish Strength" is considered to be the successor to the 1994 banned extremist Kach Party, which propagated, among other things, the expulsion of the Arabs from Israel. The Supreme Court ruled out in March, an openly racially occurring "strength" candidate from the election.

kulanu

The party was founded in 2014 by former Likud minister Moshe Kachlon and is considered a right-wing liberal party. Since 2015 she sits with ten mandates in the Knesset and is part of the government under Netanyahu. Kachlon serves in various ministerial functions, such as finance. The party focuses on economic issues, especially those of the cost of living and fighting corruption.

Zehut

The radical nationalist party was founded in 2015 by former Likud MP Mosche Feiglin. She wants to legalize a lean state and cannabis. She represents a hostile attitude towards the Palestinians. A two-state solution is not possible with the Indentity Party, Palestinians are to be forced to emigrate. Existing agreements should be terminated.

Meretz

The left-green party stands for social justice, an end to settlement policy and a Palestinian state of its own, and scores above all in the educated European middle class. It was founded in 1992 from a merger of the Workers' Party Mapam, the civil rights movement Ratz and the liberal Shinui Party. Since then she has been involved in three governments. In 2015 she won five mandates.

Raam-Balad

The two Arab parties Raam and Balad want to jump with their connection, the 3.25-percent hurdle. They were previously part of the United List along with two other pro-Arab parties. The Knesset Electoral Commission initially denied Raam-Balad admission, but the Supreme Court reversed the decision. Both parties are campaigning for the rights of the Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, including the withdrawal of Israel from the West Bank. They also support the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of Palestinian refugees.

Hadash-Taal

Chadasch and Taal represent above all the interests of the Arab population. The traditional Jewish-Arab party Chadasch is socialist-oriented and, like Taal, argues in favor of two states in Palestine and a withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories. Previously, both belonged to the "United List", an association of four pro-Arab parties. In 2015, she moved to the Knesset with 13 mandates. In the course of intra-party conflicts, it has now dissolved. The Knesset electoral commission recently withdrew approval for a candidate in the current alliance, but the Supreme Court overturned that ruling.

On Tuesday afternoon, it was announced that President Reuven Rivlin - himself a decade-long member of the conservative Netanyahu party, but a fierce opponent of his illiberal course in recent years - had signed the National State Act in protest in Arabic.

ATEF SAFADI / EPA-EFE / REX

Arab voter in Israel

This symbolic gesture has benefited nothing. Nor that in two Arab villages, according to the Haaretz newspaper, voters were called on the speakers of the Muezzine to vote.

It will probably be President Rivlin

Netanyahu cast his vote that morning at the Paula Ben-Gurion School, named after the wife of Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. As long as the founder of the state, no prime minister has yet ruled in Israeli history.

AFP

Benjamin Netanyahu voting with his wife Sara

The 69-year-old was so far 13 years of his life Prime Minister, from 1996 to 1999 and since 2009 throughout. Now he wants to overtake Ben-Gurion in the summer. "I will start tonight building a right-wing government with my natural partners," he said immediately after the election. But if it really does happen is open.

In the video: Netanyahu and the election

Video

REUTERS

It is President Reuven Rivlin, who qua Office decides in narrow election results, which politician gets the job to form a government. This task will not be easy. It was a hard-fought election campaign until the Tuesday afternoon:

• Justice Minister Ayelet Schaked flirted with fascism charges before the election,
• Netanyahu publicly described Gantz as "mentally ill" and "weak," although he worked with the ex-chief of staff just a few years ago.
• And on Tuesday morning, more than 1,000 followers of Netanyahu's conservative Likud party caused a stir as they secretly filmed with body cameras in electoral districts where mostly Arab Israelis reside - supposedly to ensure a "fair election."

Election campaign until the last minute

Particularly striking: The party advertising on television and radio is banned on election day in Israel - but so far allowed on the Internet. All parties used social media until late in the evening to promote themselves among voters. Aggressive. Persevering. Most: Netanyahu.

"At the entrance to the city of Ashdod, on the way to a Likud event, I received a dramatic update on the very low turnout in the Likud strongholds, compared to the high turnout in the left strongholds," the prime minister tweeted in the afternoon. He added: "I have canceled the event and am now on the way to a crisis meeting in Jerusalem, the rights must be saved, there are only a few hours left, go out and vote for the Likud or we will get a leftist government. "

בכניסה לאשדוד, בדרך לאירוע של הליכוד, קיבלתי עדכון ידטי על אחוזי הצבעה נמוכים מאוד במעוזי הליכוד, לעומת אחוזי הצבעה גבוהים במעוזי השמאל. ביטלתי את האירוע ויצאתי עכשיו לדיון חירום בירושלים. חייבים להציל את הימין. יש רק עוד כמה שעות. צאו להצביע מחל אחרת נקבל ממשלת שמאל

The neck-and-neck race is unlikely to start until Wednesday. The only thing is clear: in two weeks, on 23 April, the new parliament is to meet for the first time.