JERUSALEM (NBC) – Israeli residents are reacting to preliminary election results which show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party pulling ahead of its opponents in the country’s third vote in less than a year.
Exit polls on Israeli TV indicate Likud and its allies capturing 59 seats out of the 120 in parliament. That would still put Likud and its ultra-religious and nationalist bloc short of the parliamentary majority required to form a government.
With roughly 60% of votes already counted, final results were expected to be announced later Tuesday and could swing Netanyahu over the top weeks before he goes to trial to face corruption charges.
Jerusalem resident Arnon Bruckstein said, “I think that he [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] won the trust of the people, of the majority of the people, although some people would reject the idea, it’s ambivalent. But let’s remember that this is not the final result yet. It is a very big personal victory for Netanyahu, yes.”
Another Jerusalem resident, Isaac Blazer, said “We are very happy this morning to wake up to a result that says Benjamin Netanyahu can form the next government. What we see right now that he probably has 61 Knesset members, [a] majority in the Knesset, probably 62 [exit polls showed 59]. We are very, very happy about it, we wish him the best of luck and we hope that he will keep all of his promises.”
If the official results match the exit polls, and Netanyahu’s camp is unable to draw in defectors from the opposing camp, Israel’s prolonged political gridlock looked to continue with the prospect of a fourth election.
Regardless of the final outcome, the vote seemed to mark a devastating setback for Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party and its allies on the center-left, who had grand ambitions the topple Netanyahu after more than a decade in power.
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