Dead heat in Israel as Netanyahu, Herzog both declare victory; Arabs will be 3rd largest bloc

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party emerged from Tuesday’s Israeli election in a virtual tie with the Zionist Union headed by Isaac Herzog, according to exit polls, with prospects unclear whether either leader would be able to form a governing coalition.

Netanyahu, who pre-election polls suggested he was facing a real prospect of defeat, fought back in the last days of the campaign and appeared better positioned to form a coalition government. But his chances depended on the enlistment of right-center party Kulanu, whose leader, Moshe Kahlon, campaigned on pocketbook issues and is holding out for the position of finance minister.

Both leaders claimed they could form a government.

“Against all the odds, we won a big victory for the Likud,” Netanyahu told cheering supporters, who chanted, “He’s a magician!”

“Now we have to form a strong and stable government,” Netanyahu added, saying he had already been in touch with allied factions to form a coalition.

At his own party rally, Herzog, the leader of the Labor party, said that the election result “enables us to return to power” and that “everything is open.”

“I intend to make every effort to form a real social government for Israel,” he said, adding that he had contacted heads of centrist parties who could be potential coalition partners.

Herzog joined with Tzipi Livni, the leader of a small centrist party, to form the Zionist Union alliance.

In the Israeli political system, the party leader with the best chance of forming a majority coalition gets the nod from the state president to form a government.

Exit polls by Channels Ten and One showed the conservative Likud and the center-left Zionist Union tied at 27 parliamentary seats, while a poll on Channel Two showed Likud ahead, 28 seats to 27. A united Arab slate emerged as the third largest parliamentary bloc in two of the exit polls, with 13 seats.

The preliminary results indicated that Netanyahu and Herzog will have to compete for the support of smaller centrist and ultra-Orthodox parties to form a majority coalition in the 120-member legislature, with neither assured of success.

In the event of a stalemate, the state president, Reuven Rivlin, could call on the two leaders to form a unity government. The process could take weeks. In the event of a unity government, the head of the Arab bloc, Ayman Odeh, would become the official head of the opposition, entitled to security briefings.

With no clear majority for either a rightist or center-left bloc in the Knesset, the support of two centrist parties that campaigned on pocketbook issues could be critical to the formation of a coalition led by either Netanyahu or Herzog.

This story was originally published March 17, 2015 at 8:24 PM with the headline "Dead heat in Israel as Netanyahu, Herzog both declare victory; Arabs will be 3rd largest bloc."