Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman have agreed to meet on Thursday amid talks on a national unity government, hours after Benny Gantz’s Kahol Lavan party shunned a meeting with Likud’s negotiation team.

As Likud-Kahol Lavan talks appear to be deadlocked, Netanyahu told Lieberman, “There is no point in wasting Israel’s time. We’ll meet and decide [how to proceed] if we see [intentions are] serious.”

During a Wednesday meeting between representatives of right-wing parties Likud, United Torah Judaism, Shas and Yamina, Yamina MK and Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich offered to give up a ministerial portfolio in the next government to ensure that Lieberman joins a Netanyahu-led coalition.

Smotrich made his suggestion after Lieberman clarified that he would not join a “messianic” right-wing government. According to a source who was present at the meeting, Smotrich’s expressions suggested that he was prepared to sacrifice his position to allow Kahol Lavan to join the government as well. Smotrich declined to comment on the matter.

Sources who attended the meeting also said party leaders refused to sign a document presented by Likud’s Zeev Elkin that would commit them to endorsing Netanyahu as prime minister in the case that current coalition talks and a potential second-round fail, arguing it was “unnecessary at this point in time.”

If Netanyahu fails to form a coalition by a late October deadline or decides to return the mandate beforehand, President Reuven Rivlin may tap another candidate to try and form one. If that second candidate also fails, Rivlin would then allow a group of at least 61 lawmakers to present another candidate beyond the two forerunners, which is when Elkin would present such a document.

Netanyahu and Lieberman are slated to meet on Thursday at 9:30 A.M.

Lieberman confirmed the meeting, stressing he will push to “establish a unity government with the three parties: Yisrael Beiteinu, Likud, and Kahol Lavan.”

In addition, Lieberman said his party made its position clear before, during and after the September election, stating it won’t join any other government.

Lieberman’s unrelenting stance on religion-and-state issues led to Netanyahu’s failure to secure a ruling coalition following the April 9 election, which resulted in the dissolution of the Knesset and a do-over election within six months. In the September campaign, Lieberman has insisted that he will only support a government without the ultra-Orthodox parties, which Netanyahu calls “natural partners.”

Netanyahu and Lieberman have been at odds since the Knesset voted to disband itself in May after Yisrael Beiteinu chairman refused to back down on the issue of drafting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, while ultra-Orthodox parties claimed they have already yielded enough ground.

Netanyahu bashed Lieberman, saying he misled his voters while dragging the entire country into a new election. Netanyahu also called Lieberman a leftist: “he brings down right-wing governments.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Lieberman announced that his party would join negotiations between Netanyahu’s Likud and Kahol Lavan if no breakthrough is achieved in talks to form a unity government by Yom Kippur, marked on Tuesday.

Lieberman urged Likud and Kahol Lavan during the September election campaign that the two parties form a unity government. Nevertheless, Yisrael Beiteinu hasn’t taken any action to bridge the gaps between Kahol Lavan and Likud since the election.

During his meeting on Wednesday with Yisrael Beiteinu staffers, Lieberman said he would hold informal talks with the leaders of Likud and Kahol Lavan on Thursday when the newly elected members of the 22nd Knesset will be sworn in.

Lieberman added that he hopes that “Likud and Kahol Lavan could make much more progress than what we’ve seen so far,” stressing that that last thing that Israel needs is a new election,” and that no significant political shifts are expected should a third election be held.

“We must reach a wise solution and leave all personal considerations and egos aside. In any case, we’ll enter high gear after Yom Kippur in an effort to form the new government.”

It remains unclear what is the outline Lieberman’s party will attempt to advance after it made clear — in contrast to Kahol Lavan’s stance — that it’s not against Netanyahu serving as prime minister under indictment. On the other hand, Yisrael Beiteinu committed to passing the draft law as well as additional laws in a bid to change the religious status quo in Israel, a move that will be rejected by ultra-Orthodox parties Shas, United Torah Judaism, and far-right alliance Yamina — Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc partners.

Last week Lieberman criticized Netanyahu, expressing hope that the prime minister demonstrates flexibility during negotiations with Kahol Lavan.

Taking to Facebook, Lieberman wrote that Netanyahu must “Stop your game of assigning the blame for a third round of elections, and perhaps we’ll hear even before Rosh Hashanah that we have a government, at least in principle,” adding that “history has proven that when Bibi wants to he can be the most flexible man in the world.”

The post Israel Election Results: Netanyahu Announces Thursday Meeting With Lieberman as Unity Talks With Gantz in Deadlock first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

As the Jewish Voice meets its weekly publication deadline on Tuesday evening in New York City, it has been reported that the results of the much anticipated Israel elections have once again concluded in a stalemate of sorts. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed to secure a ruling majority in Israel’s second election of 2019, according to exit polls released by Israeli television channels on Tuesday.

According to a report on the Haaretz web site, exit polls currently indicate that Netanyahu’s Likud party will gain approximately 56 seats. The polls indicate that the largest party is Benny Gantz’s, Kachol v’Lavan. The Haaretz report indicates that since neither Netanyahu nor Gantz appear to have gained a 61-seat majority, the two are likely to enter into deliberations with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin who will determine which of them will receive the mandate to try and cobble together a governing coalition.

According to two of the polls, Kahol Lavan is leading with 32-34 Knesset seats, while Likud is projected to garner 33-30 seats.

Haaretz reported that in all three polls, the Joint List of Arab parties is projected to have garnered 15 seats, making it the third-largest party in the Knesset, while Yamina, led by Ayelet Shaked, is currently projected to win 6-7 seats, and Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu is expected to receive 8-9 seats, as of the time of publication on Tuesday evening.

Amongst the religious parties, the polls indicate that the Shas party is projected to win nine seats. United Torah Judaism is projected to win 7-8 seats, according to the Haaretz report.

All three exit polls have said that the Democratic Union party is projected to win 5-6 seats, whereas Labor-Gesher, which teetered on the edge of the electoral threshold in polls leading up to the vote, is projected to win six seats in all three exit polls, according to the Haaretz report.

As of 2:07 am Israel time, Channel 12 in Israel have updated their exit polls that show that Kahol Lavan and Likud are tied.

Kahol Lavan: 32

Likud: 32

Joint List: 13

Yisrael Beiteinu: 9

Shas: 9

United Torah Judaism: 7

Yamina: 7

Labor: 6

Democratic Union: 5

The leaders of the Blue and White Party including its leader, former IDF chief Benny Gantz as well as Yair Lapid, Gabi Ashkenazi and Moshe Ya’alon on Tuesday night arrived at party headquarters at the Tel Aviv Port, according to an INN report.

INN reported that Gantz said in his remarks, “We will wait for the true results, but it seems as though we have accomplished the mission, and no less important–we accomplished it in our way. Blue and White was and remains a major and central force in the Israeli political arena.”

“As we said, we will now patiently wait for the real results. However, we can say that it appears as though Netanyahu was unsuccessful in his mission. We, on the other hand, proved that the idea called ‘Blue and White’–a venture we started a little over six months ago–has succeeded, in a big way, and is here to stay.”

Some Netanyahu supporters gathered at the Likud Party headquarters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night. They reacted to the initial exit polls by waving banners emblazoned not with “Netanyahu,” but instead with “Trump.”

Throughout his campaign, the Prime Minister boasted about his tight relationship with President Trump, who is quite popular in Israel. And billboards across the country are plastered with photographs of the two of them together.

Neither Likud nor Kachol v’Lavan appears able to form a majority coalition without the support of Avigdor Liberman, leader of the midsize Yisrael Beitenu party, according to a report on World Israel News.

In a speech to his supporters, Liberman said the only choice is for the two large parties to join him in a broad, secular coalition that would not be subject to the demands of Charedi parties such as Shas and United Torah Judaism.

Liberman’s call would set the stage for complicated negotiations, according to the WIN report.

In the closing days of his campaign, Netanyahu vowed to annex large parts of Judea and Samaria, which Israel liberated in the aftermath of defeating four Arab armies in 1967’s Six-Day War. The Palestinians, who in over 70 years have yet to create a viable independent state, demand that Israel cede large swaths of that territory, as was reported on the WIN web site.

No serious peace talks have taken place since 2009, with Palestinian rejectionism remaining the hallmark of Mahmoud Abbas’ regime.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin’s office said Tuesday that his nomination of a candidate to form the next government would be guided in part by the need to avoid a third election, after two votes in five months, as was reported by World Israel News. Rivlin said he would meet with party leaders “after he receives a clear picture of the results, and as soon as possible.”

Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Arab Joint List, told Israeli media that if the final results match the exit polls, Arab voters will have “prevented Netanyahu from forming a government.”

Tazpit Press Service reported earlier on Tuesday that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Facebook chatbot was suspended on election day after it published poll results. Publishing polling results in the days prior to elections day is illegal in Israel.

A Netanyahu bot was suspended last week after it published “incitement.”

“We work with election committees around the world to help maintain the purity of elections. Our policy specifically states that developers are required to comply with all applicable laws in the country where their app is available. Therefore, we have suspended the bot activity in violation of local law until the polls close,” Facebook stated. Netanyahu accused Facebook of buckling to left-wing pressure, according to the TPS report.

Several parties claimed they have documented attempts at elections fraud at various locations across the country, and a few voting stations were shut down following scuffles at the site, as was reported by TPS.

Political parties across the spectrum on Tuesday submitted several complaints to the police and the Central Elections Committee following claims that they have exposed attempts to influence the outcome of the elections in a fraudulent fashion.

TPS reported that in Jerusalem, a 17-year-old was arrested after it was reported that he attempted to vote using an ID card that did not belong to him. The voting age in Israel is 18.

The police were alerted to the Arab town of Yarka in the north after a voter was caught trying to cast several votes at once when he was entitled to only one. At other locations, parties claimed that representatives of other political bodies attempted to limit the votes for them by hiding the ballots with their party name, as was reported by TPS.

All parties are claiming that the turnout of their supporters is low in comparison to their political rivals, a ploy to motivate their supports to go out and vote.

The voting turnout at 2 o’clock was 36.5%, compared to the slightly lower 35.8% at the same time of day in the April elections.

Some 130,000 chose to spend the day hiking and visiting nature reserves throughout the country. Malls reported they were full of shoppers who took the day to shop for the upcoming holiday. Many others chose to soak in the last rays of sun at the beach, before the summer ends, according to the TPS report.

(TPS, INN, WIN)

Source: http://thejewishvoice.com/2019/09/19/israeli-election-too-close-to-call-again-will-unity-govt-emerge-2/

The post Israeli Election Too Close to Call–AGAIN! Will Unity Gov’t Emerge? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.