Bibi in nailbiter! He may squeak by.

It's like Bush v Gore, except that both candidates are right wing. I'm on the edge of my seat. So is Iran. Either way they're f-cked...however Bibi is slightly more likely to bring on the heavy artillery (literally).

Netanyahu’s Likud leads Israeli election count with 27% of vote as ballots continue to be tallied

By Reuven Fenton, NY Post

Published Oct. 28, 2026

Updated Oct. 28, 2026, 5:42 a.m. ET

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party was leading Israel’s election returns Wednesday morning with 27% of the vote, as election officials reported that 70.7% of ballots had been counted following Tuesday’s fiercely contested election.

The latest figures, displayed at the Central Elections Committee’s control center inside the Knesset around 11 a.m. local time, marked a shift from the early-morning count, when Likud stood at 21.1%.

The returns followed a dramatic election night in which all three major Israeli television networks projected Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition would capture just 50 seats in the 120-member Knesset — 11 short of the majority needed to form a government.

The opposition was projected to win 52 or 53 seats, with Arab parties taking another 17 or 18, potentially giving them a decisive role in determining Israel’s next government.

But those projections remained uncertain as election officials continued counting ballots, including hundreds of thousands of special votes cast by soldiers and others away from their assigned polling stations.

Inside the Knesset’s election control center Wednesday, officials described an Election Day marked by massive turnout and unexpectedly long lines at polling stations.

“We heard about lines that were two and a half hours long,” said Rotem Kalero, who headed the committee’s operations desk. “So that is a very long line. But for us, it meant that people came out to vote.”

She also described complaints about possible voting irregularities, including an allegation that a voter had received an envelope already containing a ballot — a claim that officials investigated and determined was false.

“Every piece of information coming from every polling station across the country comes here,” Kalero said, explaining that the control center’s mission was both to oversee the election and provide transparency to the public.

With neither political camp assured of the 61 seats needed to govern, Israel could face difficult coalition negotiations once the final votes are counted.