Democrats leader Yair Golan says:“The public has spoken. It has sacked Netanyahu’s government. We have been given a historic opportunity to establish a genuine government of change in Israel, and we have no intention of letting it slip away.
“We represent a huge section of the public that has fought in the streets for four years, joined the party and gone out to campaign and persuade voters. We will do everything in our power to ensure that such a government is formed.
“We are ready to work with all our partners, bridge our differences and take responsibility.
“The public has spoken. Now it is our turn to get the job done.”
Yair Lapid, Leader of the Opposition since January 2023, offers snap verdict on Israeli election results
“Make no mistake: Netanyahu’s bloc has suffered a crushing defeat,” he says. “This is a complete collapse, and the public has told them to pack their bags and go home.”
Voting in Israel is about to close. Exit polls will start rolling in soon after.
Nimrod Sheffer, a former IDF major general and a politician for the left of centre Democrat party says they believe the Netanyahu block will shatter from 64 seats to 50.
Speaking after the biggest vote in Israel since 1977 at the Israel Press Club election night event, Sheffer, who is 11th on the Democrat list said: ’There has been a very high turnout, and that plays in our favour because many of the small parties will not pass the threshold, and then most of them, actually all of them, are from the other side of the political map. So let me let me be very very blunt, okay? I think that the political map in Israel tomorrow morning will be as follows: 50 mandates for the current coalition, which will sit in the opposition, and 70 to the next coalition. 50 to this coalition is a crash.”
Netanyahu’s coalition won 64 seats at the last election
Sheffer added: ‘It means that Israeli society says, “Do whatever you have to do to change the government.” This is a red flag for the current coalition for Netanyahu’s government. This is a red flag for the Israeli populations. We have had enough. We need a change. We want a change, and that’s why I think the turnout is so high, which we didn’t see for so many years.
“And the turnout in the Arab society is the highest ever, I think, which gives the Arab society in Israel, I believe, something between 15 to 16 or 18, maybe seats in the next Israeli Parliament, in the next, which is a huge political power, and that means to each one of us, [that they are saying] guys, you cannot ignore us anymore. We are part of the Israeli society. We are part of the political game. We want to be part of that.”
‘Tomorrow morning, or even tonight, the entire narrative that we knew about is going to change in Israel because there are two narratives that I think about. One is national unity; that’s what I believe should be done, but leave it aside. And the other one is you can’t ignore the Arabs. This is what’s going to happen. We, the Democrats Party, believe that the Arab society should be a part of the political game in Israel. You cannot ignore 21 percent of your population, citizens like me, like you. So we believe they must be part of the game.”
Shlomo Filber, pollster for Netanyahu-aligned Channel 14, hints that “a party that we never dreamed of could find itself out of the Knesset” due to the high turnout.
Source: Avi Mayer, Founder, JerusalemJournal.com
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