Israeli Election Has No Clear Winner as Leaders Claim Victory

Israel’s election remained without a clear winner early Wednesday as exit polls projected no governing majority for either of the main blocs, even as Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid declared victory for their alliance before official results were settled. Projections from Channels 12 and 13 put Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc at 50 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot at 52 to 53, and Arab parties at 17 to 18. Channel 14 projected 60 seats for Netanyahu’s bloc, 43 for the opposition and 17 for Arab parties. Neither projection gave either principal bloc the 61 seats needed for a majority. At about 1 a.m. local time, Israel’s Central Elections Committee reported that 322,299 votes had been counted from 908 stations. Of those, 320,750 were validated and 1,549 disqualified. The partial count did not establish the final national result. At a BYachad supporters’ event in Tel Aviv, Bennett said the alliance had defeated Netanyahu’s coalition, while acknowledging that the final count could change. He said leaders of what he called the Repair Bloc were in dialogue and coordination, and pledged to work toward forming a government. His remarks...