Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu declares victory in tight race

[Chef Ramsay]

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared victory after a tight national election appeared to give him the upper hand in forming the country's next coalition government.

In a statement released on Twitter, Netanyahu says that "against all odds" his Likud party and the nationalist camp secured a "great victory."

Initial exit polls showed Netanyahu's Likud Party deadlocked with the center-left Zionist Union.

But the results indicated that Netanyahu will have an easier time cobbling together a majority coalition with hard-line and religious allies.

Netanyahu said he had already begun to call potential partners.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150317/ml--israel-election-e781dbaf33.html

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[koshgel]

Might be a bit early to be declaring victory. News here says that it is still too close.

Israelis are much more moderate than this aggressive leader. Hopefully, he loses.

[Jocuserious]

"Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu declares victory in rigged race."

Fixed it for you.

[Chef Ramsay]

Netanyahu hails ‘a great victory for our people,’ though Herzog in no hurry to concede
PM promises to build ‘national camp’ coalition as quickly as possible; Zionist Union not admitting defeat; TV exit polls show Likud well-placed to build coalition; 71.8% turnout highest since 1999

TV exit polls Tuesday night showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud set to retain the Israeli leadership at the end of a bitter election campaign. Netanyahu claimed victory early Wednesday morning, though his rival Isaac Herzog did not concede defeat.

Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. on Tuesday and Israeli citizens headed for the ballots to vote for Israel’s 20th Knesset. Polls from the end of last week had left options open for a tight race. The TV exit polls were published at 10 p.m., as polling stations closed, after which official results began to roll in. The official final results won’t be publicized until Thursday.

Netanyahu, vying for the role for his fourth time (third consecutively), had made a last-ditch attempt over the past days to win back voters mainly from the right-wing bloc, vowing Monday night to block a Palestinian state should he remain in office.

More...http://www.timesofisrael.com/ballot-stations-open-as-israelis-choose-new-leadership/

All I've heard is that it's likely that Obama and co has dealt part of their hand in this table's election so I'm biased at this point. Tho, I'm not a big Bibi fan nor the republican bunch that fauns over him and uses Israel as a weight over evangelical conservatives' heads for foreign policy purposes.

[Agestorzrxx]

Israel takes care of their own people and doesn't listen to terrorist-appeasing UN liberals. If Nigeria had a strong leadership, how long do you think boko harem would walk?

[Nemo1024]

Israel takes care of their own people and doesn't listen to terrorist-appeasing UN liberals. If Nigeria had a strong leadership, how long do you think boko harem would walk?

Vladimir Putin is truly a sickening dog of the most repulsive sort. He really is.

Can you be consistent in your views? Because Putin also takes care of Russia and "doesn't listen to terrorist-appeasing UN liberals." But in this case you chose to demonise, vilify and badmouth him.

[Wilikon]

Israel takes care of their own people and doesn't listen to terrorist-appeasing UN liberals. If Nigeria had a strong leadership, how long do you think boko harem would walk?

Also 0bama machine to kick bibi out failed. $350 000 for nothing.



US Senate probes Obama funding for anti-Netanyahu campaign – report

http://rt.com/news/241237-obama-netanyahu-senate-israel/



Source: Senate panel probing ‎possible Obama administration ties to anti-Netanyahu effort

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/03/15/senate-committee-probes-whether-obama-administration-funded-effort-to-oust/



State Dept. scrubbed from anti-Bibi group's website

http://www.wnd.com/2015/03/state-dept-scrubbed-from-anti-bibi-groups-website/

[koshgel]

This is a loss for the people of Israel.

Netanyahu will continue to be an aggressor and run his country into the ground economically.

[u9y42]

This is a loss for the people of Israel.

Netanyahu will continue to be an aggressor and run his country into the ground economically.

That's true, of course; on the other hand, there is no real guarantee that the Zionist Union would act any differently to the Likud party - their rhetoric is slightly different, but that may be as far as differences go. At least, with Netanyahu in power, the West is going to have a hard time white-washing Israel's actions, and just keeping the status quo.

As far as I can see, the only possible change would come if one of the main parties was willing to share power with the Joint Arab Coalition - and that's obviously not happening any time soon.

[freedomno1]

This is a loss for the people of Israel.

Netanyahu will continue to be an aggressor and run his country into the ground economically.

That was his election promise to the far right, he said we will destroy the Arab state
We will make sure that we keep expanding Israel as well.
Sigh was hoping for a change but it may end up being more of the same, now we need to see if he can get that coalition party built.

http://news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-claims-victory-israel-election-hard-shift-010230595.html
In the final days of campaigning, Netanyahu abandoned a commitment to negotiate a Palestinian state - the basis of more than two decades of Middle East peacemaking - and promised to go on building settlements on occupied land. Such policies defy the core vision of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict embraced by President Barack Obama and his Republican and Democratic predecessors.

With nearly all votes counted, Netanyahu's Likud had won 29 or 30 seats in the 120-member Knesset, comfortably defeating the center-left Zionist Union opposition on 24 seats. A united list of Israeli Arab parties came third.

(Oddly enough I like how we can't say Nazis even though they are a Far Right group)
Seems relevant with his promise (At least were not arguing that Israel has just been suffering from PTSD for the last 50 years yet)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_Israeli_government#Comparisons_with_Nazi_Germany

[Rishblitz]

I wasn't shocked really. Netanyahu has been a way better pm then us.

[Chef Ramsay]

How Rand Paul's Digital Team Helped Re-Elect Bibi

...
Funny he should say that. Four months ago, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul hired Harris Media to run the digital operations for his RANDPAC–and, theoretically, for his coming presidential campaign. A month later, Likud hired the same consultants to help reach out to voters in the snap election. While Paul was fending off occasional attacks from American hawks, who view him as insufficiently pro-Israel, and declining to sign on to new AIPAC-backed Iran sanctions, Vincent Harris was Instagramming everything from his run from Tel Aviv to Jaffa to his "digital team" (surrounded by Netanyahu posters) to his tour of Israel's wine country.

More importantly, Harris and Duncan were bringing American tactics to Israel's race, and capitalizing off of Netanyahu's moves. The prime minister's speech to Congress was a major boon for social networking. The video led OnlyTheLikud, and viewers were asked to provide personal data, like WhatsApp contact numbers ("that's huge in Israel"), that the campaign could mobilize them with.

"We really capitalized on the prime minister’s visit to Congress to push back on the narrative that his influence had been damaged," said Duncan. "We were able to use great quotes and content from the United States and Israel, these great quotes from members of Congress who supported Bibi. We used digital to push back entire on that entire, biased narrative, and I think it was extremely effective."

They wouldn't know just how effective until all the votes and data were in. "I'm interested in seeing the turnout in the settlements, in particular," said Duncan.

What Duncan did know was that the Netanyahu splash page had more than 500,000 unique views, in a country of around 5 million voters. The mobilization might have turned out or changed the votes of people who'd told exit pollsters they planned to do something else.
...

More...http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-18/how-rand-paul-s-digital-team-helped-re-elect-bibi

[Ingatqhvq]

Well that's the peace process dead and buried. I wonder what he'll do about all the Arabs classed as citizens who can vote and who, demographically, are going to change the face of the politics there sooner or later...maybe he'll take their rights away as happened to his people.........................

[criptix]

Bad week for all jews, israel and palistinas
cant believe they reelected netanyahu...

[Chef Ramsay]

Bibi’s Ugly Win Will Harm Israel

A desperate Netanyahu used fear to grab the most seats in the election, but his rejection of a Palestinian state will further isolate the Jewish state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu won a big election Tuesday, but he won ugly by staking out a new position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is likely to harm his nation in the months ahead.

A reckoning is coming—faster than expected—for Netanyahu, his Likud Party and maybe even for the State of Israel itself.

Complete returns showed that Netanyahu’s Likud Party won 29 seats in the Knesset to 24 seats for the Zionist Union (formerly Labor) Party headed by Isaac Herzog, who ran a more spirited campaign than expected but almost certainly fell short of the support necessary to form a government.

Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, whose job consists mostly of presiding over elections, said not long after the polls closed that he wants a coalition government and has given Netanyahu, Herzog and the other party leaders a couple of days to engage in a frenzy of (largely unconsummated) deal-making. But Herzog’s parliamentary math problem got worse as the evening wore on, and it’s hard to see where he finds the “mandates” (seats) to prevail.

Beset by European boycotts, rebuked by international tribunals, estranged from the president of the United States—it’s not a pretty picture.
One big surprise was the performance of the Joint List, a coalition of usually fractious Arab parties that won 13 seats and finished third, far better than Arab Israelis ever have in the past. But their influence will be limited because Arab parties traditionally refuse to join the government so as to avoid being complicit in official Israeli policy that they loathe.

More...http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/18/bibi-s-ugly-win-will-harm-israel.html

[bryant.coleman]

The next government will  be highly unstable. The Arabs received 14 seats (their highest tally ever), while the far-right failed to clear the threshold. It will be very tough for Bibi to form a coalition.

[Aggressor66]

Netanyahu has never supported the two-state solution; he only said he did, as a ploy to stall for more time to build settlements. Not a bad tactic, but deceptive and dishonest--nothing new in politics, though.

The problem for Netanyahu and for Israel, though, is that Netanyahu wants the one-state solution, and by building settlements which make realistic borders impossible, he has virtually guaranteed one state. That leads to the next question, which is what to do with the Palestinians, setting up a choice of either a "Final Solution", or ending apartheid and giving the vote to everyone. Evidently Netanyahu has no intention of giving any more Palestinians the vote, so his course of action can be predicted....

[criptix]

well the solution to never becoming the victim again is not to become the perpetrator.

i think every sane person knows that there exist no one state solution to the israel-palistina question.
just nobody has the guts to break this circle of hatred and violence

[patt0]

Netanyahu has never supported the two-state solution; he only said he did, as a ploy to stall for more time to build settlements. Not a bad tactic, but deceptive and dishonest--nothing new in politics, though.

The problem for Netanyahu and for Israel, though, is that Netanyahu wants the one-state solution, and by building settlements which make realistic borders impossible, he has virtually guaranteed one state. That leads to the next question, which is what to do with the Palestinians, setting up a choice of either a "Final Solution", or ending apartheid and giving the vote to everyone. Evidently Netanyahu has no intention of giving any more Palestinians the vote, so his course of action can be predicted....

I don't think Netanyahu wants the one state solution because he doesn't want the Palestinians to participate like you say. : /
What he wants is to continue the settlements for as long as he can, and keep talks to fool people to think he wants a solution. That way Israel takes all the land it wants and Palestinians have to try to live on what is left.
That is different from the one state solution, and makes it impossible to have the two state solution too : /