• Israel, slow scrutiny. Ganz and Netanyahu paired: Lieberman balance needle
  • Israel, exit poll: head to head Netanyahu-Gantz
  • Israel, all the unknowns of the vote

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September 18, 2019Benny Gantz's Blue and White party leads the Israeli elections. After 92% of the counting, it has 32 seats, followed by the outgoing Likud Benyamin Netanyahu with 31 seats. Gantz's center-left bloc, including the seats of Israeli Arabs, stands at 56 deputies, while the one on the right is at 55. Lieberman's party is the balance. Therefore, still no government is ready to be born in Israel.

A new political impasse
Both political coalitions remain below the majority threshold of 61 seats out of 120 in the Knesset (Parliament), as happened five months ago with Netanyahu who failed to form the new coalition. "We will start the negotiations immediately and will talk to everyone," Gantz explains, but now worried about the participation or not in the left coalition of the Arab minority that has taken 13 seats.

Gantz is close to winning over Netanyahu, who has served as premier for more than 10 years. Bibi himself announced that he will not go to the UN General Assembly "given the current political situation", where he should have met his friend and ally Donald Trump.

Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the Russian-speaking ultranationalist party Yisrael Beiteinu who has taken 8 seats and is the balance between the parties, has no intention of going to the government with the Arab parties (13 seats, they are on Gantz's side). "Not even in a parallel universe can it happen," Lieberman promises in the aftermath of the elections.

The Yisrael Beiteinu party is pushing for a national unity government with Likud-Blue and White, arguing that it will not participate in any other type of government.

The result of the other parties
Third party, as in the elections of last April, it is confirmed just the United List of Arab parties with 13 seats, while the ultra-Orthodox of Shas have 9 seats. The other religious party, Torah United in Judaism, wins 8 seats, as does Lieberman's party. This is followed by the alliance of the right-wing Yamina (7 seats), Labor (6 seats) and the democratic camp of former Prime Minister Ehud Barak (5 seats).

Voter turnout at national level registered a slight growth, reaching 69.4% against 68.5% on 9 April.