CNN is reporting that, at this moment, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Union Party running about even.
This is good news for Netanyahu for two reasons.
One is that his Party was expected to win fewer seats than Herzog’s, so he starts in better shape than he could have been in.
The second involves the fact that Israelis do not vote for individuals for Prime Minister, they vote for parties. And the Prime Minister is decided by a coalition being formed with a majority of seats in the Knesset (Parliament). (CNN has a pretty good explanation of this procedure, which you can read by clicking here.)
Netanyahu, between what appears to be his party’s higher-than-expected Knesset total and the fact that more smaller parties seem disposed to him rather than Herzog, is likely to be in a better position to successfully form such a coalition (no guarantees, of course, that’s just the way it looks right now).
In 2009, Netanyahu’s Likud Party had fewer seats than the Zionist Union Party, but due to being able to form a coalition he became Prime Minister anyway. I wouldn’t be shocked if that happened again this time.
Stay tuned….
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UPDATE: They are counting the election returns and…
…it appears that Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party is doing appreciably better than expected. With about 25% of the votes counted, the Jerusalem Post is reporting that Likud – which exit polls suggested was neck and neck with its main rival, the Zionist Union Party of Isaac Herzog, looks like it may win 32 seats in the Knesset to 25 for Zionist Union.
If this is true, than Barack Obama’s streak continues. In last year’s midterm elections his party got it’s clock cleaned, losing its senate majority, along with additional house seats, governorships and state legislative chambers.
And now, Mr. Obama may have hit for the “daily double” by clearly supporting Netanyahu’s opponents and seeing him win anyway.
I’ll just bet Democrats will be falling all over each other to have him campaign for them in 2016…..
