Election in Israel: Gadi Eisenkot and Benjamin Netanyahu fight for power

Gadi Eisenkot, Yashar Party: "Israel is on the way to a new era - an era of hope, mutual responsibility and community."

Benjamin Netanyahu's challenger Gadi Eisenkot is optimistic in front of his supporters - but the result of the elections in Israel is a stalemate. At 77.7 percent, voter turnout was higher than it has been since 1999. According to the first projections, people in Tel Aviv are cheering and celebrating on the streets.

According to the forecast, Prime Minister Netanyahu's Likud party will emerge from the election as the strongest force, but a clear majority is not in sight. This means that lengthy coalition negotiations or new elections can be expected.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel: »This is just the beginning. We are still waiting for the actual results, which we will receive over the next day or two. We must form a right-wing, national, strong government. This is what needs to be done. “We must not endanger Israel by forming a government supported by anti-Zionist Arab parties.”

Eisenkot, in turn, also addressed Netanyahu directly in his speech:

Gadi Eisenkot, Yashar Party: »Netanyahu, don't you dare abuse Israel's security for your political purposes! The coalition of failure has lost the trust of the people. The Israeli public has decided against continuing Netanyahu's term as Prime Minister of Israel."

However, Eisenkot is in a dilemma: without the support of the Arab parties, which achieved historically strong results, he will probably not be able to form a government. But the opposition ruled out cooperation during the election campaign. The votes will continue to be counted and the official election results will not be announced until November 4th.