Netanyahu scores crushing victory in Israeli elections

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party was the clear winner in Tuesday’s election, a near-final tally showed early Wednesday morning, defeating the Zionist Union by a margin of some six seats.  

"That margin was far more decisive than TV exit polls had predicted when polling booths closed at 10 p.m. on Tuesday. All three TV polls had put Likud and Zionist Union neck-and-neck, albeit with Netanyahu better-placed to form a coalition.

"On the basis of those TV polls, Netanyahu hailed a Likud victory, though Herzog refused to concede. As counting proceeded through the night, however, the Likud opened a growing margin of victory.

"By 4 a.m., with some 90% of votes counted, the Central Elections Committee was indicating a dramatic victory for Netanyahu, with the Likud heading for 30 seats, compared to Zionist Union’s 24 seats."  . . .

Kristol: Netanyahu's Victory and Obama's Defeat  The podcast here; it begins at .50
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The next 22 months until President Barack Obama leaves office promise to be the most challenging period in the history of US-Israel relations

. . . "Now unfettered by electoral concerns, over the past week Obama exposed his ill-intentions toward Israel in two different ways.

"First, the Justice Department leaked its intention to indict Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez on corruption charges. Menendez is the ranking Democratic member, and the former chairman, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is also the most outspoken Democratic critic of Obama’s policy of appeasing the Iranian regime." . . . Caroline Glick