‘Israel at historic juncture’: Netanyahu refuses to concede as Gantz claims ‘mission accomplished’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to fight on even as exit polls showed him tied or lagging behind his main opposition rival, with a slim chance of assembling the coalition needed for a fifth term.

“We won’t have and can’t have a government dependent on anti-Zionist Arab parties,” Netanyahu proclaimed as the crowd of his supporters booed and chanted ‘we don’t want unity.’

The embattled PM stopped short of claiming a victory – or conceding his defeat – saying instead “we are waiting for the real results. One thing is clear: Israel is at a historic juncture.”

Netanyahu’s chief rival for the premiership, retired General Benjamin ‘Benny’ Gantz, gave his followers a cheerful “mission accomplished” speech in the early hours of Wednesday, encouraged by the exit polls.

“We will wait for the actual results, but the way things stand, we’ve fulfilled our mission,” he said at Blue and White HQ in Tel Aviv, adding that Netanyahu “did not succeed in his mission.”

Negotiations to form a national unity government are under way, Gantz said. Blue and White has previously said they were open to such a government with Likud, but only without Netanyahu anywhere in the picture.

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