According to news agency Reuters, with 99.5 percent of votes counted, Netanyahu's Likud party won 29-30 seats in the 120-member Knesset (parliament/legislature), comfortably defeating the Zionist Union opposition on 24 seats. A united list of Arab parties came in third.
His victory was indeed unexpected and hard fought one as opinion polls published 4 days before the vote showed the Zionist Union with a four-seat advantage over Likud.It could be speculated that this led Netanyahu to make a series of promises designed to shore up his Likud base and draw voters from other right-wing and nationalist parties.
In the 4-day pre-election blitz, pledged to go on building settlements on occupied land and said there would be no Palestinian state if he was re-elected.
In a statement, Likud said Netanyahu intended to form a new government within weeks, with negotiations already underway with the pro-settler Jewish Home party, the centrist Kulanu party and ultra-Orthodox groups.
Meanwhile, Isaac Herzog, the leader of the Zionist Union, conceded defeat, saying he had called Netanyahu to congratulate him.
With this win, Netanyahu is on his way to a 4th-term in office, putting him on track to become Israel's longest-serving prime minister, a label held by the country's founding father, David Ben-Gurion.
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