Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to address supporters at Likud’s election headquarters in Jerusalem early Wednesday morning, as party MK Amit Halevi and supporters argued that the final vote count would give his bloc a stronger result than the initial exit polls suggested.
Halevi urged patience, telling The Jerusalem Post that the initial projection of 50 seats for Netanyahu’s bloc understated its support and would not be the final outcome.
His confidence echoed that of supporters in the hall, where chants of “Only Bibi!” accompanied repeated assertions that Netanyahu would find a way to form the next government.
Channel 11,12, and 13 projected Likud would earn 27 seats and put Netanyahu’s bloc and the four-party opposition grouping at 51-52 seats, with Ra’am and the Joint List taking 18-19. All three channels projected Yashar to receive 21-22 seats, with the opposition bloc to receive 49-52 seats. Neither bloc had a projected majority in the 120-member Knesset.
Channel 14 continued to offer a substantially more favorable picture for Netanyahu, raising its projection to 31 seats for Likud and 62 for his bloc.
Those remained projections, not final results. The count and negotiations ahead would determine who could form the next government.
Inside the hall, classic Israeli songs played in Mizrahi renditions. Journalists and activists, party members and sitting MKs all filled the venue, surrounded by the party’s blue and white and campaign posters.
For Meir Cohen, a longtime Likud member, asked how Netanyahu would navigate the uncertainty ahead and assemble a government, the answer was simple.
“I trust Bibi,” he told the Post.
Cohen traced his connection to Likud to his birth in 1973, saying Menachem Begin had been his sandak, holding him during his brit milah, the Jewish ritual circumcision.
Asked about the initial projections, he expressed distrust of the other three main broadcasters’ polls. His confidence lay with Netanyahu, whom he credited with strengthening Israel’s military power and standing abroad.
“He will protect us. He will continue to protect us,” Cohen said.
Halevi, meanwhile, described the election as Israeli society’s response to the October 7 attacks and three years of war. People had not remained indifferent, he told the Post. They had come out to vote.
He also pointed to the projected strength of the Arab parties, arguing that their political influence raised questions about the country’s future. His objection, he said, concerned what he characterized as their radical ideology, rather than ethnicity.
Halevi warned that an attempt by Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot to form a government reliant on figures Halevi described as radical advisers to Yasser Arafat would fail.
For supporter Tomer Shlomi Mishkaf Lavan, the evening was about the country’s future and the need to bring Israelis together.
This ship called the State of Israel to safe harbor'
“We are fighting for the future of the State of Israel,” he told the Post, calling for a strong leader who would unite the country.
He returned repeatedly to the divisions between Israelis, describing angry exchanges, burning tires and blocked roads over the past four years. He wanted four years of quiet, an end to the protests and a different atmosphere between people.
“We need mutual responsibility. We need people to love one another,” he said.
His hopes for unity were bound up with his expectation that Netanyahu would remain at the helm. Asked what being at Likud headquarters meant to him personally, he again spoke about overcoming divisions.
“I came here to express my opinion. My opinion is unity,” he said.
He wanted the prime minister to mend the country’s rifts and guide “this ship called the State of Israel to safe harbor.”
Another supporter, who told the Post he had worked for the movement for nearly 60 years, urged patience. The projections were only the first of the evening, he said, questioning whether the polls fairly reflected support for Netanyahu.
As the hall awaited the prime minister’s address, questions about seats and coalition partners repeatedly brought the conversation back to Netanyahu himself.
“I trust Bibi,” Cohen said.