Skip to main content
Live blog update| Israeli Elections

What next in Israeli politics?

We've some hours to go before the final results are in, but this looks like a bad night for Benjamin Netanyahu.

Once again Avigdor Lieberman is kingmaker, and there's nothing to suggest he'll sit with Netanyahu and the Ultra-Orthodox parties this time around.

There is some suggestion that parts of Gantz's Blue and White may break off to sit with Likud's coalition. But that may be on the condidtion that Netanyahu, who faces a hearing in his corruption cases in a fortnight's time, steps aside.

More immediately, Netanyahu's threat that he will annex the occupied West Bank's Jordan Valley if re-elected looks a more distant possibility - at least for now.

The results of the exit polls are shown on a screen at Benny Gantz's Blue and White party headquarters, following Israel's parliamentary election, in Tel Aviv (Reuters)
The results of the exit polls are shown on a screen at Benny Gantz's Blue and White party headquarters, following Israel's parliamentary election, in Tel Aviv (Reuters)