Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared victory on Tuesday in Israel’s third election in less than a year, after television exit polls showed him just a seat short of a governing majority in parliament.
THIRD GENERAL ELECTIONS IN A YEAR
A win for Netanyahu, 70, after inconclusive ballots in April and September, would be testimony to the political durability of Israel’s longest-serving leader, who fought the latest campaign under the shadow of a looming corruption trial.
It would also pave the way for the right-wing Netanyahu to make good on his pledge to annex, after the election, Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, and the region’s Jordan Valley, under a peace plan presented by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Palestinians have rejected the proposal, saying it was killing their dream of establishing a viable state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.