Israeli Netanyahu leading, nearing majority: Initial vote projections

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Following Tuesday's Israeli Knesset elections, preliminary projections suggested that Benjamin Netanyahu was within striking distance of a governing majority and of staging a comeback. However, the picture may change as official results come in.

Although the margins were tight, which is an expected scenario in the bitterly divided occupation government holding its fifth election in less than four years, the right-wing occupation leader was leading early on.

According to predictions from three Israeli networks, Netanyahu's Likud will likely take over the 120-seat Knesset with 30 or 31 seats to spare.

The initial projections indicated that this number, along with anticipated totals for the two ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties and the extreme-right "Religious Zionism alliance," gave the coalition supporting Netanyahu between 61 and 62 seats.

However, those things are subject to change, and prior Israeli elections have demonstrated that even small variations as the votes are officially tallied can significantly change the outlook.

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With projections putting centrist Yesh Atid between 22 and 24 seats, caretaker PM Yair Lapid's party was on track to finish in second place as expected.

This comes after the Israeli occupation's former PM seemed to be struggling to achieve a majority in the Knesset in light of the rising anti-Netanyahu rhetoric among his opponents.

The occupation's opposition leader would come within a single seat of having a majority in the upcoming election, which is the fifth in less than four years.

If the election process does not give either side a majority, a deadlock would dominate the political scene within the occupation's government while assigning incumbent Prime Minister Yair Lapid with the task of managing "Israel's" affairs as caretaker Prime Minister.

A similar deadlock saw Netanyahu ousted from office back in 2021 after four votes that did not deliver on a parliamentary majority, resulting in former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid's coalition taking over the Knesset.