Benyamin Netanyahu addresses a crowd of supporters after his surprise victory. Demotix/David Bar Dov. All rights reserved.
Benyamin Netanyahu, already Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, is about to put together his fourth government. Two hours before midnight on 17 March 2015, exit polls by Israel’s three main television channels indicated a tie of roughly 27 seats each between his party, Likud, and the opposition Zionist Union.
By the next morning however, the tally respectively showed 30 to 24, a clear margin of victory for Netanyahu’s party which grew by 50% compared to 2013. Gambling on a joint list to challenge Netanyahu, the Zionist Union, an alliance of Yitzhak Herzog’s Labor Party and Tzipi Livni’s HaTenuah ('the Movement'), may have secured significant gains compared to 15 and 6 seats respectively in 2013, but not nearly enough to form a government.
