Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on January 22, 2016

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his chief challenger, Isaac Herzog of the center-left Zionist Union, appeared to win about the same number of seats in Parliament on Tuesday, according to Israeli news media and exit polls.

Expect a protracted and messy process to form the next governing coalition after official results are announced.

The New York Times correspondents Jodi Rudoren, Isabel Kershner and Diaa Hadid provided updates and analysis from Israel.

Hundreds of Likud supporters cheered and clapped during an address by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that was billed as a victory speech.

All of us together and each one of us know this is right, said Ella Mazouz, a 27-year-old mother of three. Likud is the right thing.

As the Likud campaign anthem blasted through speakers in the crowded hall, she said she was thrilled with the result, which is not official.

Despite all the polls and against all odds and what the left and the media was saying, the people have made it clear what they want, she said.

Meir Gabai, 58, who said she had voted for Likud for 40 years, was certain that Mr. Netanyahu would be able to command at least the 61 seats needed to form a government.

It may be a bit difficult, but he can do it, she said. The right is stronger.

Mr. Netanyahu obviously agreed.

I am proud of the people of Israel, who in the moment of truth knew how to distinguish between what is important and what is peripheral, and to insist on what is important, he told the crowd, adding, All of you are important, and all of you are important to me.

Citing the issues he emphasized in the campaign like security and issues that his opponent seized on like the rising cost of living and housing Mr. Netanyahu tried to rally his right-leaning allies and sympathetic centrists to his side.

I spoke this evening with all the heads of the parties of the national camp, he said. I called on them to join me and to form a government in Israel without delay. Because reality is not taking a break. Israels citizens expect that we will quickly form a responsible leadership that will work for them, and that is what we will do!

Isaac Herzog spoke late Tuesday night, calling on all social parties to support him.

The public wants change and there are enough votes for a real change in Israel, Mr. Herzog said. We set up a team that will work on the negotiations to build a coalition, and we will try and make that happen. There will be no decisions made tonight. Go to sleep.

Moshe Kahlon, the leader of the Kulanu party, which received nine or 10 seats in Parliament, exit polls showed:

We want practical solutions. Friends, in places where others gave up, we promised to fight and to win. This election campaign, to my regret, reached levels that we dont remember. It created rifts and polarization among our people. We stand here on this stage, I stand here as your representative. And I say: Now is the time to heal, to unite; it is not the time for rifts. Now is the time to do what is best for all of us. This evening is about recognizing the good. An evening of modesty and good conduct. I am not arrogant, and I certainly wont gloat.

Merav Michaeli, a member of the Zionist Union, said she was pleased with Tuesdays apparent election results. The right-wing bloc is smaller than it was before the election, she said, adding: Netanyahu stooped so low, he left scorched earth in Israel fraud and incitement, setting the citizens of the country against one another.

She said her slates leader, Isaac Herzog, was in the best position to form a government, perhaps with the cooperation of a rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Moshe Kahlon of the center-right Kulanu party.

Even those who voted for Kahlon are people who do not want Netanyahu, she said.

The leader of the Meretz party, Zehava Gal-On, said she had already been in touch with Mr. Herzog and encouraged him to establish a center-left government.

Meretz, which nearly missed out on winning any seats in the Knesset when it struggled to meet the new, higher electoral threshold, would back Mr. Herzog, but not in a partnership with Mr. Netanyahu, Ms. Gal-On said.

I call on him not to go to a unity government, she said. I call on my colleague Moshe Kahlon to team up with Herzog and be a partner in a center-left government, and if that doesnt work then go to the opposition.

BEIRUT, Lebanon News channels in Lebanon, Israels northern neighbor, made only scant mention of the elections in Israel during the day Tuesday, reflecting the sense among many Lebanese that the outcome is unlikely to significantly change how Israel relates to its neighbors.

Israel and Lebanon remain hostile neighbors after several wars, the last of which, between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group and political party, killed more than 1,000 people in 2006, most of them Lebanese civilians, according to Human Rights Watch.

Hezbollahs television network, Al Manar, broadcast short news segments on the election throughout the day, using terminology reflecting the groups goal of wiping Israel off the map. It showed footage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dropping his ballot in a blue box while the anchor summed up election predictions given by Zionist analysts.

A later segment discussed editorials about the election published in the newspapers of the enemy, meaning Israel, with a focus on writers who criticized Mr. Netanyahus harsh stance toward Hezbollahs ally and patron, Iran.

A report on Al Manars website said the Zionists, or the Israelis, were casting ballots across the occupied territories, which for Hezbollah means not just the West Bank and Gaza Strip but all of Israel.

NAZARETH, Israel Celebratory car horns could be heard throughout Nazareth when exit polls showed that the Joint List of Arab-Israeli political factions was poised to receive 13 seats in the Knesset, Israels Parliament.

People are happy, said a cafe owner here. But they also beep for everything, even when Brazil wins a football game.

At the headquarters of the Joint List of Arab-Israeli factions, some men and women waved flags bearing the slogan, The will of the people.

They hooted and cheered as the slates leaders spoke.

This is a great achievement, said Ahmad Tibi, a veteran Arab politician in Israel. But we will have before us great challenges. We will fight racism, we will fight fascism, we will defend our rights, regardless of the government.

We are the indigenous people of this land, and we look to the future with the optimism and realism, he said. Today we are stronger.

Speaking on Israels Channel 1 television, Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Arab list, bragged: We will prevent Bibi from establishing the next government.

His slate of candidates looks to be the third-largest faction in the new Parliament, based on Israeli media reports and exit polls. When asked if he would call the Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog, Mr. Odeh smiled.

I need to call him? he asked rhetorically. He should call me.

Shelly Yachimovich, a senior member of the Zionist Union and former leader of the Labor Party, on Israels Channel 2:

A unity government is undesirable. There is a yawning abyss between us. We have no common agenda. We have 27 seats. I advise Netanyahu not to be smug.

Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home party, on Israels Channel 2 television:

I was asked a few minutes ago if I was disappointed by our public, by the national-religious public. I tell you: Its just the opposite. I am proud of religious Zionism. I am proud of the members of religious Zionism because it is a true ideological public. It is called to the task of settlement, and it reports for duty. It is called to pioneering tasks, and it reports for duty. It is called to social activity throughout Israel, and it reports for duty. And this time it was called to a political task, and it reported for duty big time.

Mr. Bennett, who once worked for Mr. Netanyahu, then was shunned by him, positioned himself to join his former boss should he be able to form a government.

Jerusalem of gold, I am a violin to all your songs. My brothers and sisters, the national camp has won! The camp whose voters love the land of Israel, whose voters will never be willing to establish a Palestinian state in the land of Israel, is the victorious camp. And because the national camp has won, we, the Jewish Home, will be the gatekeepers [ensuring] that our path triumphs as well. A short time ago, brothers and sisters, Prime Minister Netanyahu called me. I congratulated him on the national camps great victory, and we agreed to begin accelerated negotiations to form the government.

Despite Israeli media reports that exit surveys were showinghis Likud Party running neck and neck with its Zionist Union rivals or perhaps because of them Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a swift claim of victory in Tuesdays bitterly contested general election.

On his Facebook page, a post appeared about 45 minutes after the polls closed, saying, Against all odds, a great victory for the Likud, a great victory for the national camp led by the Likud, a great victory for Israel.

Similar language went out a few minutes later on Mr. Netanyahus Twitter account:

JERUSALEM Not all the votes will be counted Tuesday night. About 250,000 Israeli soldiers, diplomats and other voters in special circumstances began casting their ballots March 5, and those results will be reported Wednesday.

In Israels last election, in 2013, late results shifted one of the 120 seats in the Knesset, or Parliament, from a left-wing Arab party to the rightist Jewish Home party. That seat, the rightist partys 12th, went to Shuli Mualem, a nurse whose husband was among 73 people killed in a 1997 crash involving two Israel Defense Forces helicopters.

Im happy that the soldiers are the ones that put me in the Knesset, Ms. Mualem told an Israeli news site at the time. It is another point of the deep and special connection between me and the I.D.F.

While commonly called the soldiers votes, ballots from the special polling stations include those cast by diplomats and emissaries of Zionist organizations working abroad, as well as police officers, prisoners and prison guards, and patients and staff in Israeli hospitals.

Voting on military bases and outposts across the country began on Sunday, with most of the ballots cast by young soldiers performing their mandatory service.

Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, noted that young voters tend to go for confrontational parties and not the large mainstream parties like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus conservative Likud Party or the center-left Zionist Union alliance.

Those votes could prove influential.

For this election, a party will need to attract at least 3.25 percent of all ballots cast to receive seats in the Knesset, an increase from 2 percent in previous elections. Surveys conducted before the election suggested that there were three parties that would have cleared the old hurdle but may struggle to clear the new one: Meretz on the left, the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu, and Yahad, a new ultra-Orthodox party.

If one or more of them does fall short, it would be the most dramatic thing in the election, Ms. Talshir said. And the soldiers votes may have to be counted before they know their fate for certain.

JERUSALEM In Israel, electoral math can require an advanced degree.

The magic number is 61. That is how many of the Knessets 120 members a party leader needs in his column to form a government and become prime minister, generally by cobbling together a coalition of disparate parties.

This year, there is a new variable changing the calculations.

To qualify for seats in the Knesset, a party must receive at least 3.25 percent of all votes cast, a higher threshold than the 2 percent figure used in the past. Twenty-six parties are vying for seats, and some that have cleared the threshold in previous elections may not do so this time. Votes cast for parties that fall short are set aside, so the new threshold will mean more votes will probably drop out of the calculations this year than in the past.

The new threshold may also shift the balance between the right-leaning and left-leaning blocs in the Knesset, and thus play a major role in determining who wins.

Get out your calculators. In the 2013 election, there were 3,792,742 valid votes, and a party needed 63,212 votes to make the cut. Once they did, every 31,606 votes in their tally entitled them to one seat. (268,795 votes for parties that did not reach the minimum threshold were thrown out.)

The voter rolls have grown 4 percent since then. So, assuming a similar turnout rate, the threshold for entering the Knesset this time would be about 106,828 votes.

Four Arab factions that were in danger of disappearing under the raised threshold banded together for this campaign as a joint list. If that move has increased the traditionally low turnout of Israeli Arab voters, as polls predicted, it would become even more difficult for other small parties to cross the threshold.

(For those more interested in political science or history than in math, the number of seats in Israels Parliament is based on the Knesset Hagdolah, Hebrew for Great Assembly, the legislative body convened in Jerusalem in the fifth century B.C.E., which also had 120 members.)

Pre-election polls suggested that three parties were teetering on the brink: Yisrael Beiteinu, the ultra-nationalist faction headed by the outspoken foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman; Yahad, a new ultra-Orthodox party led by Eli Yishai; and Meretz, the left-wing pro-peace party that dates back to 1992 and is led by Zehava Gal-On.

Now, back to basic addition and that magic number, 61. Analysts divide the field into a few camps. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Likud Party, the rightist Jewish Home party and Yisrael Beiteinu are seen as a nationalist alignment likely to get a total of somewhere around 40 seats. The new Zionist Union, Meretz and the Yesh Atid party led by Yair Lapid are considered a center-left bloc of similar strength.

The balance will probably go to smaller groups: the Arab list, whose leaders say they will not join any coalition but will try to block Mr. Netanyahu from a fourth term; three religious parties including Yahad; and a new centrist party, Kulanu, that broke away from Likud and could align with either of the large blocs.

The math favors Mr. Netanyahu over the Zionist Union, because the Orthodox lean his way. If Meretz fails to clear the 3.25 percent threshold, analysts say it is nearly impossible to imagine a center-left government being formed. But if Yisrael Beiteinu or Yahad or both do not make it into the Knesset, it is equally difficult to imagine Mr. Netanyahu staying prime minister.

This has only deepened the dilemma for some voters who must balance their politics with math. And many analysts say the new threshold for small parties increases the prospects for a unity government, with Mr. Netanyahu and the Zionist Unions leader, Isaac Herzog, rotating the premiership.

More here:
Israel Elections: Results and Analysis - The New York Times

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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