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The smiling taxi driver outside Tel Aviv’s University rail station this morning was in no doubt, telling me happily: “Bibi-Zehu” — Hebrew for “that’s it.” A supporter of Benny Gantz’s centrist Kahol Lavan party, he may have been a little premature in hailing the end of the man who has dominated Israeli politics for a decade. But he was reflecting a sense across the country today that the Netanyahu era is finally drawing to a close. With 92 per cent of the vote counted, the Prime Minister’s Likud party was tied with Kahol Lavan at 32 Knesset seats each (out of 120).
In the tortuous coalition negotiations that will follow, Netanyahu (Prime Minister from 1996-99 and from 2009 to the present) will do all he can to retain power. But it was clear from the early hours that he recognised the severity of his failure to secure the seats required to form a right-wing coalition with ultranationalist and religious parties.