Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed victory in Israel\’s election on Tuesday after exit polls showed he had erased his centre-left rivals\’ lead with a hard rightward shift that saw him disavow a commitment to negotiate a Palestinian state.
The Paris kosher supermarket where four hostages were killed in January by an Islamist gunman reopened on Sunday morning to \”show that life is stronger than barbarity,\” supermarket officials and France\’s interior minister said.
After weeks in which polls consistently showed Zionist Union holding a slight lead over the Likud Party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israelis delivered a split decision in elections, leaving the two parties virtually tied atop exit polls.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claiming victory for his Likud party in a close-call election on Tuesday, said he had invited other rightist politicians to join him in a coalition government \”without delay.\”
In the United States, the magic number on Election Day is 270, the number of Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency. In Israel, it’s 61, the number of seats needed to capture a majority in the 120-seat Knesset — and with it, the premiership.
Voters came out early as Israelis went to the polls to elect the 20th Knesset.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat did not die of poisoning, a French prosecutor said.
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