Ishmael
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 18, 2011
- 15,039
- 6,015
- Thread starter
- #21
Wednesday
12:31 a.m. Officials close to President Reuven Rivlin told Channel 1 late Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will form the next coalition if Kulanu head Moshe Kahlon offers his endorsement of the incumbent.
12:25 a.m. Yesh Atid is a political force that cannot be ignored in Israeli politics, party chairman Yair Lapid told supporters in Tel Aviv early Wednesday.
Lapid hailed the election result which places Yesh Atid as "the largest centrist party with double-digit number of Knesset seats."
The former finance minister triumphantly said that "we are here to stay."
Lapid said that his party would continue to combat "corruption and political extortion" while promoting "a friendly, embracing version of Judaism."
12:15 a.m. Isaac Herzog, the head of Zionist Union, told an adoring crowd of supporters at party headquarters in Tel Aviv just after midnight on Tuesday that his campaign recorded "an extraordinary achievement."
"Not since Yitzhak Rabin's election victory [in 1992] have we gotten this result," Herzog said.
The Labor chairman said that the "achievement would not have been possible without the brave partnership with Tzipi Livni."
Herzog said that the Zionist Union's result "enables us to return to the government."
"It's all wide open," he said. "I've talked with the heads of all of the parties. We don't know what the end results will be, and we will wait, but I plan to do all I can to form a socioeconomic coalition, a real socioeconomic coalition for Israel."
Herzog called on the heads of smaller parties to "unite under my banner and join a national reconciliation government."
12:05 a.m. Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, whose Yisrael Beytenu party garnered only five mandates in exit polls after Tuesday's Knesset election, said that his party had made it through despite "great forces that tried to eleiminate the party and did not succeed."
"Now we must concern ourselves with the good of the country and afterward we will return to being a party with 15-20 mandates," he said.
12:02 a.m. Moshe Kahlon, the head of the Kulanu Party, was noncommittal late Tuesday when asked which candidate he would endorse for the premiership.
"I said this throughout the campaign – I will endorse the candidate who is committed to healing the country's socioeconomic woes, bringing down housing prices, and lowering the cost of living," Kahlon told Channel 2.
Exit polls show Kahlon's party winning between nine and 10 seats in the parliament, putting him in an advantageous negotiating position with the heads of the two largest parties – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) and Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union).
Tuesday
11:57 p.m. Yahad, the far-right faction founded by Shas breakaway Eli Yishai, has won the minimum votes needed to gain representation in parliament, according to Channel 1 exit polls.
The other two networks - Channel 2 and Channel 10 - estimate that Yahad missed the cut.
If Yishai's party has indeed amassed the minimum votes needed to enter the Knesset, it would bolster the nationalist bloc of parties, making it more likely that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will form the next coalition.
11:22 p.m. Channel 2 announced a mistake in its exit polls on Tuesday night. The station lowered its poll numbers for Yesh Atid from 12 to 11 mandates and raised Kulanu's result from nine to 10 mandates.
11:04 p.m. After the polls closed on Tuesday night in the election for the 20th Knesset, the Central Elections Committee reported voter turnout at 71.8 percent, four percent more than the last election's 66.6% turnout.
10:58 p.m. Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett spoke at his party's HQ Tuesday following the release of the first exit polls that left his party with an estimated 8-9 seats in the upcoming election.
Bennett said that he is not disappointed in the election turnout, but, on the contrary, stands "proud of the national-religious public for being pioneers and standing up to a political challenge."
10:46 p.m. After polls closed Tuesday night, Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon spoke on the telephone with Likud leader Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as with Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog.
Kahlon told the leaders of the 20th Knesset election's main contending parties, which appear head-to-head in exit polls, that he would decide with whom his party would align depending on official ballot results.
10:45 p.m. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared victory after the first exit polls released following Tuesday's elections showed the Likud ahead of, or tied with, the Zionist Union.
Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page: "Against all odds, a great victory for the Likud, for the nationalist camp led by the Likud, and for the people of Israel."
10:39: The Zionist Union rejected conjecture that the results of exit polls following Tuesday's election show that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will form the next coalition.
"The Likud continues to err. The right-wing bloc has gotten smaller. Everything is open until the final results are in and we will know which parties passed the electoral threshold and what kind of government we can form. All of the spin and the commentary is too early. We have formed a negotiating team with the goal of putting together a coalition led by [Zionist Union leader Isaac] Herzog.
10:37 p.m. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday night called Shas leader Arye Deri, and the two agreed to meet Wednesday. Zionist Union co-leader Isaac Herzog also called the Shas leader after the polls closed.
10:35 p.m. Tel Aviv's Tzavta theater erupted in applause and cheers Tuesday night when exit polls showed Meretz easily surpassed the electoral threshold with five mandates.
"We did it against all odds!," an elated Meretz head Zehava Gal-on told the room.
10:24 p.m. Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon's signature grin was on display Tuesday night as the first election surveys showed him taking 9-10 seats, slightly ahead of the last election polls that put him at 8.
Party activists chanted "Here comes the next finance minister!"
Kahlon is expected to take the Finance portfolio given his centrist positioning, which put him in the kingmaking position between the Zionist Union's Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of Likud.
10:13: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu phoned Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett Tuesday evening following the release of the first exit polls.
Bennett congratulated Netanyahu for his "victory," and the two mutually agreed to begin negotiations for the formation of a nationalistic coalition government that would work to better the security and well-being of the Israeli people.
10 p.m: The first exit polls were released Tuesday as voting closed in elections for the 20th Knesset, suggesting a tight race between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud and Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union.
Channel 2's poll had the Zionist Union with 27 mandates, the Likud with 28 mandates, the Joint Arab List with 13 mandates, Yesh Atid with 12 mandates, Bayit Yehudi with 8 mandates, Kulanu with 9 mandates, Shas with 7 mandates, United Torah Judaism with 6 mandates, Meretz with 5 mandates, Yisrael Beytenu with 5 mandates and Yahad failing to pass the electoral threshold.
Channel 10's polls had the Zionist Union with 27 mandates, the Likud with 27 mandates, the Joint Arab List with 13 mandates, Yesh Atid with 11 mandates, Bayit Yehudi with 8 mandates, Kulanu with10 mandates, Shas with 7 mandates, United Torah Judaism with 7 mandates, Meretz with 5 mandates, Yisrael Beytenu with 5 mandates and Yahad failing to pass the electoral threshold.
Channel 1's polls had the Zionist Union with 27 mandates, the Likud with 27 mandates, the Joint Arab List with 13 mandates, Yesh Atid with 12 mandates, Bayit Yehudi with 9 mandates, Kulanu with 10 mandates, Shas with 7 mandates, United Torah Judaism with 6 mandates, Meretz with 5 mandates, Yisrael Beytenu with 5 mandates and Yahad failing to pass the electoral threshold.
9:52 p.m. Joint Arab List leader Ayman Oudeh predicts getting 15 mandates, with 65 percent turnout in the Arab sector.
9:20 p.m. At 8p.m. the IPS said that the polls had closed at the nation's prisons and that the overall voter turnout for inmates stood at 81.74%, well over the nationwide percentage, which was around 65% by late evening.
9:00 p.m. Yahad party leader Eli Yishai said he had been informed Tuesday evening that his faction was lacking thousands of votes in order to reach the electoral threshold, and called on all Israeli citizens who had not yet cast their ballots to support him.
"If there's no 'Yahad' there is no Right!" the former Shas leader said on Facebook, adding that his campaign workers would do all they could to keep the faction and the right-wing bloc afloat.
8:35 p.m. Voter turnout was at 65.7 percent by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the Central Elections Committee.
The latest figure registered slightly more than the 63.9% voter turnout at the same hour in the 2013 election.
7:10 p.m. "[Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu lost today the legitimacy to rule," Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On said Tuesday, hours before the polling booths were set to close.In a Facebook post, Gal-On accused Netanyahu of racist incitement against Israel's Arabs, slamming it as "unacceptable, even if it had come from a marginal politician, but when the prime minister of Israel dares to call the votes of 20% of the population a threat that must be acted against, when he describes their exercising their democratic rights as if they are an enemy invading the country, he transforms himself into unsuitable to serve in this role, regardless of the election results today."
7:32 p.m. The Likud reacted angrily on Tuesday to the Central Elections Committee's decision to bar the broadcast of Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu's press conference on radio and television on the grounds that it constitutes illegal electioneering on voting day. "While Tzipi and Buji have interviewed on all the television stations all day long, the first that they decided to ban the broadcast of was the prime minister. They will not shut our mouths. The prime minister will put out his comments on the Internet."
Netanyahu put out a short clip of him addressing supporters on a megaphone, saying "I'm asking you to do just one thing, those who haven't voted go vote Machal," he said, referencing the three word Hebrew symbol on Likud's voting slips. "Bring your relatives, neighbors, friends, everyone to vote Machal. If you want me as a prime minister and you don't want Herzog and his partner Livni atop a leftist government with the support iof the Arabs, you must vote Machal, Machal and again Machal."
6:45 p.m. In the election for the 20th Knesset, 54.6 percent of eligible voters had cast their ballots by 6 p.m. on Tuesday, reported the Central Elections Committee.
The latest figure - taken from 8,791 polling stations - trailed slightly from the 55.5% voter turnout at the same hour in the last election in 2013.
6:35 p.m. Police arrested a 23-year-old Sderot resident Tuesday on suspicion of threatening former defense minister and MK Amir Peretz (Hatnua) at a voting station in the southern city.
6:30 p.m. The Central Elections Committee on Tuesday barred Israeli television and radio stations from broadcasting a scheduled press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The decision by Israel Elections Committee chairman Justice Salim Joubran came after a petition issued by the Zionist Union and Yesh Atid argued that such a press conference would violate electioneering laws on the day of the vote.
6:21 p.m. Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, saying that "Netanyahu's panic is embarrassing." Netanyahu had tried to get out the right-wing vote earlier on Tuesday by warning that Arab voters were going en masse to the polls. Herzog said in response that "those who want a prime minister that cares about his citizens and doesn't incite or divide must stand up, go out and vote."
5:59: 51 criminal cases have been opened thus far Tuesday for people impersonating others at voting booths, theft of vote slips, or for threatening staffers.
5:25 p.m. Likud MK Ze'ev Elkin's grandfather, Arkadi Verchovsky, died at age 90 at his polling place in Neve Ya'akov, immediately after voting.
Verchovsky was a veteran of World War II who fought in the Red Army. He moved to Israel from the US in 2004.
Elkin told Ma'ariv that his grandfather was active until his last day, and even went out to convince his neighbors to vote for Likud last week.
4:50 p.m. The voter turnout rate by 4 p.m Tuesday to the elections polls stood at 45.4 percent, according to the Central Elections Committee.
12:31 a.m. Officials close to President Reuven Rivlin told Channel 1 late Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will form the next coalition if Kulanu head Moshe Kahlon offers his endorsement of the incumbent.
12:25 a.m. Yesh Atid is a political force that cannot be ignored in Israeli politics, party chairman Yair Lapid told supporters in Tel Aviv early Wednesday.
Lapid hailed the election result which places Yesh Atid as "the largest centrist party with double-digit number of Knesset seats."
The former finance minister triumphantly said that "we are here to stay."
Lapid said that his party would continue to combat "corruption and political extortion" while promoting "a friendly, embracing version of Judaism."
12:15 a.m. Isaac Herzog, the head of Zionist Union, told an adoring crowd of supporters at party headquarters in Tel Aviv just after midnight on Tuesday that his campaign recorded "an extraordinary achievement."
"Not since Yitzhak Rabin's election victory [in 1992] have we gotten this result," Herzog said.
The Labor chairman said that the "achievement would not have been possible without the brave partnership with Tzipi Livni."
Herzog said that the Zionist Union's result "enables us to return to the government."
"It's all wide open," he said. "I've talked with the heads of all of the parties. We don't know what the end results will be, and we will wait, but I plan to do all I can to form a socioeconomic coalition, a real socioeconomic coalition for Israel."
Herzog called on the heads of smaller parties to "unite under my banner and join a national reconciliation government."
12:05 a.m. Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, whose Yisrael Beytenu party garnered only five mandates in exit polls after Tuesday's Knesset election, said that his party had made it through despite "great forces that tried to eleiminate the party and did not succeed."
"Now we must concern ourselves with the good of the country and afterward we will return to being a party with 15-20 mandates," he said.
12:02 a.m. Moshe Kahlon, the head of the Kulanu Party, was noncommittal late Tuesday when asked which candidate he would endorse for the premiership.
"I said this throughout the campaign – I will endorse the candidate who is committed to healing the country's socioeconomic woes, bringing down housing prices, and lowering the cost of living," Kahlon told Channel 2.
Exit polls show Kahlon's party winning between nine and 10 seats in the parliament, putting him in an advantageous negotiating position with the heads of the two largest parties – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) and Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union).
Tuesday
11:57 p.m. Yahad, the far-right faction founded by Shas breakaway Eli Yishai, has won the minimum votes needed to gain representation in parliament, according to Channel 1 exit polls.
The other two networks - Channel 2 and Channel 10 - estimate that Yahad missed the cut.
If Yishai's party has indeed amassed the minimum votes needed to enter the Knesset, it would bolster the nationalist bloc of parties, making it more likely that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will form the next coalition.
11:22 p.m. Channel 2 announced a mistake in its exit polls on Tuesday night. The station lowered its poll numbers for Yesh Atid from 12 to 11 mandates and raised Kulanu's result from nine to 10 mandates.
11:04 p.m. After the polls closed on Tuesday night in the election for the 20th Knesset, the Central Elections Committee reported voter turnout at 71.8 percent, four percent more than the last election's 66.6% turnout.
10:58 p.m. Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett spoke at his party's HQ Tuesday following the release of the first exit polls that left his party with an estimated 8-9 seats in the upcoming election.
Bennett said that he is not disappointed in the election turnout, but, on the contrary, stands "proud of the national-religious public for being pioneers and standing up to a political challenge."
10:46 p.m. After polls closed Tuesday night, Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon spoke on the telephone with Likud leader Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as with Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog.
Kahlon told the leaders of the 20th Knesset election's main contending parties, which appear head-to-head in exit polls, that he would decide with whom his party would align depending on official ballot results.
10:45 p.m. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared victory after the first exit polls released following Tuesday's elections showed the Likud ahead of, or tied with, the Zionist Union.
Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page: "Against all odds, a great victory for the Likud, for the nationalist camp led by the Likud, and for the people of Israel."
10:39: The Zionist Union rejected conjecture that the results of exit polls following Tuesday's election show that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will form the next coalition.
"The Likud continues to err. The right-wing bloc has gotten smaller. Everything is open until the final results are in and we will know which parties passed the electoral threshold and what kind of government we can form. All of the spin and the commentary is too early. We have formed a negotiating team with the goal of putting together a coalition led by [Zionist Union leader Isaac] Herzog.
10:37 p.m. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday night called Shas leader Arye Deri, and the two agreed to meet Wednesday. Zionist Union co-leader Isaac Herzog also called the Shas leader after the polls closed.
10:35 p.m. Tel Aviv's Tzavta theater erupted in applause and cheers Tuesday night when exit polls showed Meretz easily surpassed the electoral threshold with five mandates.
"We did it against all odds!," an elated Meretz head Zehava Gal-on told the room.
10:24 p.m. Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon's signature grin was on display Tuesday night as the first election surveys showed him taking 9-10 seats, slightly ahead of the last election polls that put him at 8.
Party activists chanted "Here comes the next finance minister!"
Kahlon is expected to take the Finance portfolio given his centrist positioning, which put him in the kingmaking position between the Zionist Union's Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of Likud.
10:13: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu phoned Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett Tuesday evening following the release of the first exit polls.
Bennett congratulated Netanyahu for his "victory," and the two mutually agreed to begin negotiations for the formation of a nationalistic coalition government that would work to better the security and well-being of the Israeli people.
10 p.m: The first exit polls were released Tuesday as voting closed in elections for the 20th Knesset, suggesting a tight race between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud and Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union.
Channel 2's poll had the Zionist Union with 27 mandates, the Likud with 28 mandates, the Joint Arab List with 13 mandates, Yesh Atid with 12 mandates, Bayit Yehudi with 8 mandates, Kulanu with 9 mandates, Shas with 7 mandates, United Torah Judaism with 6 mandates, Meretz with 5 mandates, Yisrael Beytenu with 5 mandates and Yahad failing to pass the electoral threshold.
Channel 10's polls had the Zionist Union with 27 mandates, the Likud with 27 mandates, the Joint Arab List with 13 mandates, Yesh Atid with 11 mandates, Bayit Yehudi with 8 mandates, Kulanu with10 mandates, Shas with 7 mandates, United Torah Judaism with 7 mandates, Meretz with 5 mandates, Yisrael Beytenu with 5 mandates and Yahad failing to pass the electoral threshold.
Channel 1's polls had the Zionist Union with 27 mandates, the Likud with 27 mandates, the Joint Arab List with 13 mandates, Yesh Atid with 12 mandates, Bayit Yehudi with 9 mandates, Kulanu with 10 mandates, Shas with 7 mandates, United Torah Judaism with 6 mandates, Meretz with 5 mandates, Yisrael Beytenu with 5 mandates and Yahad failing to pass the electoral threshold.
9:52 p.m. Joint Arab List leader Ayman Oudeh predicts getting 15 mandates, with 65 percent turnout in the Arab sector.
9:20 p.m. At 8p.m. the IPS said that the polls had closed at the nation's prisons and that the overall voter turnout for inmates stood at 81.74%, well over the nationwide percentage, which was around 65% by late evening.
9:00 p.m. Yahad party leader Eli Yishai said he had been informed Tuesday evening that his faction was lacking thousands of votes in order to reach the electoral threshold, and called on all Israeli citizens who had not yet cast their ballots to support him.
"If there's no 'Yahad' there is no Right!" the former Shas leader said on Facebook, adding that his campaign workers would do all they could to keep the faction and the right-wing bloc afloat.
8:35 p.m. Voter turnout was at 65.7 percent by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the Central Elections Committee.
The latest figure registered slightly more than the 63.9% voter turnout at the same hour in the 2013 election.
7:10 p.m. "[Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu lost today the legitimacy to rule," Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On said Tuesday, hours before the polling booths were set to close.In a Facebook post, Gal-On accused Netanyahu of racist incitement against Israel's Arabs, slamming it as "unacceptable, even if it had come from a marginal politician, but when the prime minister of Israel dares to call the votes of 20% of the population a threat that must be acted against, when he describes their exercising their democratic rights as if they are an enemy invading the country, he transforms himself into unsuitable to serve in this role, regardless of the election results today."
7:32 p.m. The Likud reacted angrily on Tuesday to the Central Elections Committee's decision to bar the broadcast of Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu's press conference on radio and television on the grounds that it constitutes illegal electioneering on voting day. "While Tzipi and Buji have interviewed on all the television stations all day long, the first that they decided to ban the broadcast of was the prime minister. They will not shut our mouths. The prime minister will put out his comments on the Internet."
Netanyahu put out a short clip of him addressing supporters on a megaphone, saying "I'm asking you to do just one thing, those who haven't voted go vote Machal," he said, referencing the three word Hebrew symbol on Likud's voting slips. "Bring your relatives, neighbors, friends, everyone to vote Machal. If you want me as a prime minister and you don't want Herzog and his partner Livni atop a leftist government with the support iof the Arabs, you must vote Machal, Machal and again Machal."
6:45 p.m. In the election for the 20th Knesset, 54.6 percent of eligible voters had cast their ballots by 6 p.m. on Tuesday, reported the Central Elections Committee.
The latest figure - taken from 8,791 polling stations - trailed slightly from the 55.5% voter turnout at the same hour in the last election in 2013.
6:35 p.m. Police arrested a 23-year-old Sderot resident Tuesday on suspicion of threatening former defense minister and MK Amir Peretz (Hatnua) at a voting station in the southern city.
6:30 p.m. The Central Elections Committee on Tuesday barred Israeli television and radio stations from broadcasting a scheduled press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The decision by Israel Elections Committee chairman Justice Salim Joubran came after a petition issued by the Zionist Union and Yesh Atid argued that such a press conference would violate electioneering laws on the day of the vote.
6:21 p.m. Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, saying that "Netanyahu's panic is embarrassing." Netanyahu had tried to get out the right-wing vote earlier on Tuesday by warning that Arab voters were going en masse to the polls. Herzog said in response that "those who want a prime minister that cares about his citizens and doesn't incite or divide must stand up, go out and vote."
5:59: 51 criminal cases have been opened thus far Tuesday for people impersonating others at voting booths, theft of vote slips, or for threatening staffers.
5:25 p.m. Likud MK Ze'ev Elkin's grandfather, Arkadi Verchovsky, died at age 90 at his polling place in Neve Ya'akov, immediately after voting.
Verchovsky was a veteran of World War II who fought in the Red Army. He moved to Israel from the US in 2004.
Elkin told Ma'ariv that his grandfather was active until his last day, and even went out to convince his neighbors to vote for Likud last week.
4:50 p.m. The voter turnout rate by 4 p.m Tuesday to the elections polls stood at 45.4 percent, according to the Central Elections Committee.
