WhatsappPM Netanyahu and his staff break out in a Jerusalem song as they hear the initial election exit polls. This was a big win, even as we wait for the final results.
High-Level Results
Israel election result update from the exit polls Benjamin Netanyahu and the right-wing/religious block is right now winning, with around 60 seats. Netanyahu has the very real ability to set up a right-wing government. However, we have to wait for real results in the morning. But we can breathe easier!
Analysis
First of all, for those unfamiliar with Israeli society and politics, Netanyahu represents the proud patriotic Jew with a deep connection to Jewish tradition, considered “right”. Due to this fact, he has succeeded in putting together a loyal coalition of right-wing and Jewish religious parties that have stuck with him in every election the past year. The Israeli “left”, on the other hand, represents the leftist elites of the media, academia and the judicial system who identify less with their traditional Jewish identity. In a sense, it is a bit similar to the left/right of the United States of America, with some distinct differences.
The exit polls show that Netanyahu’s Likud party won 37 seats, with his other right-wing/religious parties he has 60 seats. He still needs at least 1 more seat to make a ruling coalition to have a majority of the 120 seat parliament. However, for the left, it is impossible to create a coalition. Impossible. The traditional left has been destroyed in this election. The new left Blue & White party now has 33 seats. They can’t make a coalition. The traditional left parties, that they would have join their coalition of Labor and Meretz have only 6 or 7 seats! That means the traditional left only has 40 seats! The other two parties that they would have to create a coalition with are the joint Arab list, which includes terror-supporters, and the Jewish Home Russian party, which is a right-wing party, but won’t sit in a government with Netanyahu. Neither of those parties will sit with each other, so Blue & White can not make a coalition with both of them.
The most important result of this exit poll is that the patriotic right-wing, religious public won! The less traditional, leftist elites lost.
The left-wing Labor used to be the leading party of Israel, which led Israeli governments for decades, and today it only has 6 or 7 seats!
An additional hit to the traditional “left” camp in Israel is that a faction of the left Blue & White party is also right-wingers who agree with the Netanyahu’s Likud on almost everything but hate Netanyahu! So in essence, the right-wing camp is represented in today’s Israeli parliament with more than 70 seats! The traditional Jewish left is left with around 30 seats!
However, even with this real political situation, the left in Israel still controls the media, academia and the judicial system. That is how they still rule the culture and the narrative in Israel. Tonight’s win by Netanyahu and the right had to overcame the whole leftist campaign against them to win, which included the whole mainstream media that did not give fair coverage at all.
Again, we are still waiting for final results, but unless there are dramatic changes to the exit polls, Netanyahu’s celebration singing a song of Jerusalem will still be applicable.
