VICTORY

Netanyahu Crushes Rivals for Fourth Term

After last-minute surge.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party crushed its opposition and secured a fourth term for Netanyahu in Wednesday’s election. With nearly 99.5 percent of ballots counted, Likud had 29-30 of the 120 seats in parliament vs. the Zionist Union’s 24 seats. This means that Netanyahu is virtually certain to form a new government and become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. Pre-election polls showed Likud with 10 fewer seats than it won, but Netanyahu evidently turned the tide by promising there would be no Palestinian state if he were reelected and warning that Arabs were voting for leftist parties. “I am proud of the Israeli people that, in the moment of truth, knew how to separate between what’s important or what’s not and to stand up for what’s important,” Netanyahu said.