The prevailing assessment is that even if the investigation yields significant evidence of election bribery, the chances of annulling the election results nationwide are slim.
Sources in the change bloc told Walla on Tuesday that there will be no second chance, and that party leaders must be ready to break promises and make painful compromises to form a government.
“The Likud is Israel’s largest party,” Netanyahu said, claiming the right-wing bloc had decisive support among Jewish and Zionist voters and supporters of the Jewish state.
Initial voting results gave his political bloc a 53-50 or 52-50 lead over the Netanyahu bloc according to Channels 11, 12, and 13, even as Netanyahu edged Eisenkot in head-to-head competition.
With Likud emerging as the largest party but Gadi Eisenkot's opposition bloc ahead in the initial exit polls, the president faces a difficult decision over who should be given the first opportunity.
The results put B’Yachad broadly in line with pre-election expectations, although its projected support remained well below the 24 seats Yesh Atid won independently in the November 2022 election.
The projections would give the two parties combined either 18 or 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset, compared with their five seats each in the outgoing parliament.
Yisrael Beytenu, led by Avigdor Liberman, is projected to win seven seats in the next Knesset, according to data from Israel's Central Elections Committee.
Israeli election exit polls project eight seats for Yair Golan's Democrats, potentially more than doubling the party's parliamentary representation as coalition negotiations loom.
Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party added former Likud MK Gotliv to its slate, while RZP ran in a technical bloc with Zehut, led by Moshe Feiglin, in an effort to help clear the electoral threshold.
The memory of October 2000 has not faded, but it has been overtaken by the reality of the past four years, under a government that has done far more than neglect Arab citizens.
