Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in a battle for political survival after exit polls following Tuesday’s election showed the race too close to call and the Israeli leader’s decade-long grip on power slipping.
Netanyahu’s main election challenger, centrist Benny Gantz, said on Wednesday it appeared from the exit polls the country’s longest-serving leader was defeated but that only official results would tell.
In his own speech to right-wing Likud party faithful, Netanyahu, sipping water frequently and speaking in a hoarse voice, made no claim of victory or concession of defeat, saying he was awaiting a vote tally.
Netanyahu’s appearance in the dead of night at Likud election headquarters was a far cry from his triumphant declaration five months ago that he had won a close election. His failure to form a government after the April ballot led to the new election.
Gantz, a former armed forces chief, beamed with confidence as he told a rally of his Blue and White Party that it appeared “we fulfilled our mission”, and he pledged to work towards formation of a unity government.
Netanyahu, he said, apparently “did not succeed in his mission” to win a fifth term.
“We will await the actual results,” Gantz, 60, said.
Read the article by Jeffrey Heller in The Sydney Morning Herald.