Prime Minister Yair Lapid stopped short of conceding Tuesday's election, saying he will wait until final results were in after exit polls predicted a loss for his camp and a comeback for former premier Benjamin Netanyahu.
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"We have no intention to stop," Lapid told his supporters at his Center-Left party headquarters. "We will continue to fight for Israel to be a Jewish and democratic, liberal and progressive state," Lapid said.
Lapid's ruling party Yesh Atid ("There is a future"), which was leading a transition government based on a loosely based coalition, won just over 20 seats, compared to Likud's 30. Overall, Netanyahu's bloc of right-wing and religious parties appeared poised to win an outright majority in the Knesset, all but guaranteeing Lapid would be unseated.
Lapid told his supporters shortly after 1 a.m that "this long night will last two days; nothing is over until all votes are counted, and we will wait patiently despite being impatient for the final results."
Lapid thanked his supporters and said that "over a million Israelis voted for Yesh Atid, we won an unprecedented number of seats, we showed responsibility toward the rest of the bloc." He said the strong showing meant that "a million Israelis went to vote for being Jewish and Israeli; both liberal and patriotic; both secular and connected to the Bible and tradition."
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