Netanyahu’s election gamble backfires

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel: election gamble backfires

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was 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 that Israel’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 on Tuesday.

Before the last election, Trump gave Netanyahu a lift with U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. This time, the White House seems more preoccupied with Iran.

The Trump administration plans soon to release an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan that may prove a dead letter: The Palestinians have rejected it in advance as biased.

In what was widely seen as a bid to draw votes away from ultranationalist parties, Netanyahu last week announced his intention to annex the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinians seek statehood.

But Blue and White, while vowing to pursue peace, has also said it would strengthen Israeli settlement blocs in the West Bank, with the Jordan Valley as Israel’s “eastern security border”.

In Gaza, Palestinians awaited the results of the vote.

“This election affects many things in our life,” said Mohamad Abdul Hay Hasaneen, a janitor in the city of Khan Younis. “There might be limited escalations after the election, but I don’t think this would result in a full war.”