The counting of the votes has ended, and we now have the official results for the 2013 Knesset elections. In the last 24 hours Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home party has won one more seat at the expense of the United Arab List. The rest of the map is unchanged. Here are the full results:
Likud Beitenu 31; Jewish Home 12, Shas 11; United Torah Judaism 7; Yesh Atid (Yair Lapid) 19, Kadima 2, Hatnuah (Livni) 6; Labor 15; Meretz 6. Hadash 4; United Arab List 4; Balad 3
Notable changes from the previous elections: Jewish Home, associated with the settlers, rose from 5 seats to 12. Together with the success of the settlers within Likud, this were the best ever election for them ever in terms of direct representation. Their only failure was the 2 seats lost due to the fact that the far-right Otzma LeYisrael party came close but did not end up passing the Knesset threshold.
Likud-Beitenu dropped from 42 to 31, out of which only 20 are members of Netanyahu’s Likud party and the rest belong to Avigdor Lieberman (the two ran on joint ticket but kept their parties separate). A bad result for the prime minister. The Orthodox have 3 more seats.
Lapid’s Yesh Atid took Kadima’s place as the big centrist party. Combined, all the centrist parties have 27 seats, which is very similar to what Kadima won in 2009 (28).
The Palestinian parties and Hadash (which is Palestinian-Jewish) remain unchanged. The Zionist left (Meretz and Labor) became stronger – their combined representation is now at 21 (they previously had 16).
In short: Netanyahu’s right-Orthodox base lost 4 seats. The settlers and the Zionist left got stronger; the center remains the same, with Lapid simply replacing Kadima as the leader of the bloc.
I posted a more in depth analysis of the vote yesterday. You can read it here.
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Grandma
Any numbers on Da’am, dear?
Sydney Nestel
You forgot to include Labors 15 seats in the centre.
Greg Pollock
Proposed definition of the Israeli Center: that which changes its name and says it has accomplished something.
Alternative proposed defintion: that which affirms something, then runs heard like into another name to start all over again.
rsgengland
The most interesting aspect of these elections is the changing emphasis of the voters.
Socioeconomic causes and worries seem to have been the motivating factor driving voters.
The security situation has been almost accepted as a given; that at this present moment it is livable with.
The peace process is not going anywhere.
Abbas has little legitimacy due to the extension of his position as PA President, without new elections.
Hamas has been quiet unequivocal in their stance towards peace with Israel(total destruction of Israel).
Israel can’t/won’t allow the Palestinian right of return, and the Palestinians can’t/won’t settle for anything less.
And the situation of the Jewish refugees needs to be addressed as well.
So all in all, the ‘peace process is at an impasse, trumped at the moment by economic issues.
Shuki Raz
Shas got 11, not 12
Noam Sheizaf
corrected