Exit polls indicate that former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to win the country’s general election.
The forecasts give his right-wing coalition a narrow majority of seats over his opponents on the center-left, led by the current prime minister, Yair Lapid.
Such a result would be a remarkable return to power for Mr. Netanyahu, who was deposed after 12 years in power last year.
“We are near to a major win,” he told Jerusalem’s delighted supporters.
The election was mostly viewed as a vote for or against the reelection of Mr. Netanyahu.
Exit polls indicate that his coalition will hold 61 or 62 seats in the 120-member Knesset (parliament).
With just under 85 percent of Tuesday’s ballots counted, the party was forecast to gain as many as 65 seats. This could, however, change once the remaining ballots are counted.
Mr. Netanyahu and his Likud party will require the cooperation of the far-right, ultra-nationalist Religious Zionism party to gain a parliamentary majority.
Its leaders are notorious for employing anti-Arab rhetoric and advocating the expulsion of “disloyal” politicians and people.
Mr. Netanyahu, joined by his wife Sara, appeared at the election night site of his Likud party on Wednesday at 3:00 local time (01:00 GMT) to loud acclaim.
“We have received an overwhelming vote of confidence from the Israeli people,” he told his jubilant supporters.
Since the exit polls had been published hours earlier when voting concluded, the room had been a scene of jubilation, with people jumping up and down, waving flags, and chanting Bibi, Netanyahu’s nickname. A guy repeatedly blew a shofar, or ram’s horn, a ritual instrument employed by the Jewish people during times of great significance.
However, at his party’s Tel Aviv camp, Prime Minister Lapid informed his followers that “nothing” had been decided and that his center-left Yesh Atid party would await the final results.
Mr. Netanyahu, 73, is one of the most divisive political leaders in Israel, reviled by many on the center and left but adored by Likud’s grassroots supporters.
He is a staunch backer of Israel’s settlement construction in the occupied West Bank since the 1967 Middle East War. Under international law, these settlements are deemed illegal, however, Israel disputes this.
As a solution to the Israel-Palestinian problem, he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which is backed by the majority of the international community and the Biden administration.
Mr. Netanyahu is also facing charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, which he vehemently rejects. His potential coalition partners in a Likud-led government have stated that they would amend the law, putting an end to his trial.
With the support of nationalist and religious groups, exit polls indicate that the Likud will be the largest party with 30-31 seats and a majority.
Yesh Atid, which headed the coalition that toppled Benjamin Netanyahu in last year’s elections, is predicted to gain 22 to 24 seats.
Religious Zionism seems to have gained fourteen seats, making it the third-largest party.
Julian, a supporter of Religious Zionism, stated at the party’s venue in Jerusalem, “It will be better today.”
“It will be even better when [Religious Zionism leader Itamar Ben-Gvir] becomes minister of public security and restores security to the Israeli people. This is vitally crucial.”
However, political scientist Gayil Talshir of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem cautioned that if the exit polls “represent the actual results, Israel is on its path to becoming Orban’s Hungary,” which the EU has dubbed an “electoral autocrat.”
If the polls are accurate, it will prevent the possibility of the sixth election in only four years, as projected by analysts.
It would be a dramatic turnaround for Mr. Netanyahu, whose political career was widely written off when Mr. Lapid established an unexpected alliance of ideologically disparate parties to gain power in June 2021, to prevent Mr. Netanyahu from forming a government.
At the time, Mr. Netanyahu threatened to bring it down as soon as possible, and a year later, the coalition government realized it could not survive and fell due to the loss of its majority due to resignations.
