Israeli legislative election

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Final result:

Live election results, Zionist Union and Likud neck and neck at 27 seats, slight lead for Likud.

http://www.haaretz.com/st/c/prod/eng/2015/elections/results/

What happened to Labor ???

It's a miracle that Bibi won, nobody was giving him a chance prior to election but i guess his security agenda is still pretty popular in Israel despite other things like the high cost of living and housing.

Bibi is a political animal. His resources are like 3:1 against all his oppositions. He knows what he has to do to win.

Unfortunately the Middle east problems will remain for another 5 years and will get worse with him in charge.

Peace was always a long shot, now it's impossible.

The sad thing is how openly cynical this election was.

Netanyahu just came out and said why he moved to the right. He said he is now against any Palestinian state simply because he needed all the right-wing votes to win the election.

When it is not a scandal, but perfectly normal, that a major candidate candidly says that he changed one of his major opinions to garner votes, the entire system is almost moot.

Why did he even want to win the election, if not for the power itself, if what he wants to do with that power is massively open to change?

I get wanting to be head of state because you want to do something, but if you're willing to adjust what you're going to do to anything that'll get you there, you probably shouldn't even be in charge of your fantasy football league.

Biggest loser in this election was not Herzog. It was Obama.

Bibi winning despite what the he and the GOP did undermines Obama severely and makes him look weak.

It will be fascinating to observe how this impacts US-Israeli relations now.

Obama doesn't lose from this, Israel does as it's unlikely Obama will do anything but the bare minimum to help Israel for the next year and a half.

The Joint List was the 3rd most voted for party, this could be a turning point for Arab Israeli politics. Hopefully it lasts beyond this election.

A win for Herzog certainly would've re-opened meaningful dialogue, but Obama's relationship with Netanyahu has been on the rocks for some time now anyway. His outlook on Israel itself has been quite icy, something conservatives have continually harped on. Bibi winning despite the rather public falling out he's had with Obama can't have helped the president much from a foreign policy perspective.

McLewis I don't think Obama is weakened by Israeli voters voting for Netanyahu, he is weakened by Republicans undermining him in his own country. I think the lack of a reprimand from the public to the Republican party is far more damaging to him than Israelis voting for a PM that can go to the US and act as if he is more important than the boss. Clearly, Netanyahu knew what he was doing when he came to the US, at least from a short-term elections point of view.

On other news, Haaretz is reporting that the Obama-Netanyahu relationship is now approaching new lows. It will never happen, but I would like to see Obama threaten to cut Israel's military funding unless they try for adopt a 2 state solution again, for the lulz.

Bibi already backtracking on his ulta-right wing rhetoric that won him the election

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/19/benjamin-netanyahu-two-state-solution_n_6902666.html

he's not really backing off...  just playing politics. On one hand, he'll say he's open to two states, while on the other hand, he'll continue with settlements.  

Another notch in Obama's putrid foreign policy legacy.  He must be thanking his lucky stars that he had Geithner his first 4 years...

Liberalism always beats extreme right wing terrorists in the long run. The same will happen in Israel.. the people will wake up. I mean, look how split this election was compared to the past few..