Early results point to another Israeli deadlock

Exit polls on Wednesday gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and his allies a lead, but not enough to score the parliamentary majority required to form a new government. Final results from the Tuesday election are expected later this week.

What does this mean? With no clear majority win, Israel could face its fifth election in two years. Netanyahu tried to boost his support with a successful vaccination campaign that has enabled the country to reopen. But his opponents argued he is still facing a corruption trial and failed to properly handle other aspects of the pandemic. More than 6,000 Israelis have died from coronavirus.

Netanyahu hailed his party’s lead as a “great achievement” and called for the formation of a stable government. “We must not under any circumstances drag the state of Israel to new elections, to a fifth election,” he said.

Dig deeper: Read my earlier report in the Sift on what led to the fourth election.