The Final Election Results

Yom Chamishee

Thursday

12 Nisan 5781

March 25, 2021

 

The News on the Israeli Street

The daily Corona (Covid-19) update . . .

Please note that these numbers encompass from 8 pm Wednesday to 8 pm Thursday:

830,515 Israelis have been confirmed with the virus since the pandemic began last March.

There are 683 newly confirmed cases.

482 are in critical condition—a decrease of 18

189 of the most critically ill are on ventilators—a decrease of 18

6,157 have died–an increase of 26

There are currently 12,906 active Corona cases.

The most worrisome news of the day is that the number of daily dead seems to be creeping upward even as newly confirmed cases and critically ill continues to decline.

The best Corona news of the day . . .

The Hamas senior official in Hevron, Adnan Abu Tabbaneh (aged 55), died today of Covid-19.

Another senior Hamas official, Omar Barghouti (aged 69) also died today of Covid-19. Barghouti was convicted of murder back in 1978 but was released in a prisoner exchange deal back in 1985.

Where’s safe from Corona?

According to Bloomberg, the five safest countries in the world for Corona are, in order: New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Taiwan, and Israel.

In case you missed the Suez Canal debacle . . .

The “Ever Given” cargo ship which is remarkably stuck horizontally in the Suez Canal is no closer to being freed. More than 150 ships are now lined up behind it waiting to get through. A flotilla of Egyptian tugboats has been trying to free it for two days.

Try to wrap your mind about how complicated the shipping world now is. The boat is:

Japanese owned (Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd)

Panamanian flagged

Taiwanese operated (Evergreen Marine Corp.)

German managed (Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement)

Indian crewed (all 25 members are from India)

And it was being piloted by two Egyptians from the Suez Canal Authority when it went aground.

And . . . it is a Dutch salvage company trying to extricate it.

TODAY’S BLOG:

The Final Election Results

As of 4 pm Israel time today, 4,400,465 votes have been counted–accounting for 100% of the vote. Official results are due on Friday.

The “unofficial” results:

Seats—% of the vote—Party
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30—24.21% of the vote—Likud

17—13.92%—Yesh Atid 

9—7.17%—Shas

8—6.61%—Kahol Lavan (Blue/White)

7—6.18%—Yamina

7—6.07%— Labor

7—5.65%—United Torah Judaism

7—5.65%—Yisrael Beiteinu

6—5.09%—Religious Zionism

6—4.83%–Joint Arab List

6—4.74%—New Hope

6—4.58%—Meretz

4—3.81%—Raam

What are the biggest surprises?

Winners

*Kahol Lavan. Benny Gantz was predicted to possibly not even pass the 3.25% threshold and quickly fade into political obscurity. Instead, he ends up as a major political force.

*Labor. Another party seemingly on the wane, but under the new leadership of Merav Michaeli, Labor surged to 7 seats.

*Religious Zionism. Bezalel Smotrich can be proud that he too has won 7 seats–nearly doubling votes for his party in previous elections.

*Raam. This Israeli-Arab party was also predicted to not make the threshold cut; instead, its leader Mansour Abbas may turn out to be the kingmaker.

Losers

*Likud. Despite its relatively strong showing, Netanyahu was predicting 34 seats for his party. That number did not materialize.

*New Hope. Gideon Sa’ar rose meteorically in the polls and fell just as precipitously.

*Joint Arab List. Israeli-Arabs simply did not turn out to vote in as great numbers as in the past.

What will the next government look like?

Who knows?

Israeli TV networks are reporting that the anti-Netanyahu group has 61 votes. However, that is only if RAAM is included. RAAM head Mansour Abbas has not indicated which way he will go.

The networks are reporting that the pro-Netanyahu group has 59 votes. However, that is only if Yamina is included, and Yamina head Naftali Bennett has not committed to support Netanyahu. Netanyahu would need Yamina and RAAM to form a 61 seat coalition–but if Netanyahu takes RAAM, he most likely loses Yamina and Religious Zionism.

Alternative scenarios have Netanyahu trying to woo members of parties that oppose him to his group, or Netanyahu trying to form a minority government.

All is speculation–and just as your humble servant predicted months ago.

And so it goes in Israel today, two days before the Passover holiday.