Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared victory on Tuesday after Israel's fourth election in two years, claiming he received a resounding mandate to form a new right-wing government in what would be his sixth term in office.
Speaking at his party headquarters hours after results showed his Likud party got at least 30 seats compared with Yesh Atid's 18 projected seats. This gap, he noted, was the "best lead any winning party has had over the next largest party in decades," adding that his goal now is to assemble a coalition "without ruling out anyone" who wants to support his party's value of fighting Iran's aggression and making "peace for peace" with Israel's Arab neighbors.
"We need to avoid a fifth election and form a stable government now," he vowed. "We must not go there," he said.
Earlier he took to Twitter to declare victory.
"To the citizens of Israel – Thank you so much! You gave the Right under my leadership a massive victory. The Likud has managed to greatly expand its lead over the next biggest party. We are in our 30s, they have less than 20 seats," Netanyahu tweeted. "It is obvious that a significant majority of Israelis are right-wingers and they want a strong right-wing government to safeguard Israel's economy, security and land. This is what we will do. I love you!
Meanwhile, New Hope Party's poor showing (six seats) prompted leader Gideon Sa'ar – who had left Likud after years of animosity with Netanyahu – to accept defeat. He promised that he would not give up on the over-arching goal of his campaign: unseating Netanyahu.
"We are not going to enter a government led by Netanyahu," Sa'ar said in his concession speech. "We should embrace every outcome, because it can all turn out alright in the end, what we did here was not out of blue. We did it together. "
Yamina leader Naftali Bennett said he would "only do what is good for the state of Israel." Throughout the campaign, Bennett has refrained from saying whether he would or would not join a government under Netanyahu. "I am a man of the Right, I'm a man who wants to give security to the people of Israel," he said. Bennett, who holds the balance of power because he has yet to commit to sitting with either bloc, has remained mum until Election Day, but during his speech, after the results came in, he did not clarify his views on whether he would partner with Netanyahu. "We will pursue a responsible national and right-wing policy," he said.
Over at the Meretz headquarters, a sigh of relief swept through the Meretz campaign headquarters in Tel Aviv as the results came in.
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The party made it over the minimum electoral threshold of 3.25%, winning a projected six to seven seats, and removing concerns that had plagued party leaders for the past few days.
Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg said, "I'm proud of us. We turned things around. The feeling today was that our work was done and our message had gotten through. Still, the story is what happens to Israel – even if the worst scenario comes to pass and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forms a government, there will be someone to put up a fight."
"We proved that a large sector of the public thinks and is certain that no one can replace Meretz in the Knesset. That's 100% because of our values. It's still not sure that Netanyahu will form the government. We've been through this with other exit polls," Zandberg said.
Meretz MK Yair Golan said after the exit polls were published that "It wasn't about 'gevald' for Meretz, but for the country. We have a mission to pull the Left together, that's what we're going to do and that's where we will lead. We need a progressive country whose young people want to live there, but that's not what will happen if the Right is in power."
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Yesh Atid, which was projected to win 16-18 seats, was trying to send a message that everything was still open, but party leader Yair Lapid appeared dissatisfied with the results. Yesh Atid officials said that the right-wing parties had done worse than the Left in most exit polls, and that Yesh Atid was worried that when the final results were announced, they would gain votes at the expense of the bloc looking to replace Netanyahu.
