The results of the exit polls late Tuesday show a slight advantage to the Right, but no clear winner, putting Yisrael Beytenu in the position to deny Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a fifth term.
Likud and Blue and White both got roughly the same amount of seats, 34, and neither has an easy task of forming a governing coalition and winning the confidence of the Knesset. President Reuven Rivlin will soon consult with newly elected MKs and then decide whom to task with forming a government, with both Likud Chairman Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz vying for the job.
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With the right getting 57 seats and the Left 55, neither has a majority of the Knesset's 120 seats.
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman vowed that he would stick to his guns and only join a Likud-Blue and White unity government and asked President Reuven Rivlin to "summon both Gantz and Netanyahu for unofficial talks on Tuesday" so that he can convince them to sit together. However, it appears that Gantz would not sit with Likud unless Netanyahu is replaced as party leader because of a campaign pledge not to sit with the prime minister because of a possible indictment for corruption.
One Yisrael Beytenu MK has already said that Lieberman would abide by his pledge to sit only in a Likud-Blue and White unity government, although Blue and White has already ruled out sitting with Netanyahu because of his pending indictments.
This could put pressure on Netanyahu from within the Likud to step down, but so far there are no indications of that happening.
Netanyahu reportedly already talked with Yamina, a right-wing ally that got eight seats according to the exit polls and apparently has the support of the remaining right-wing allies.
Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz, a Likud senior minister, said that "Likud will wait until the final results are announced but I would like to already declare at this stage that Netanyahu is the Likud's only nominee for prime minister. We will work together with our natural allies to form a stable government to lead Israel through the various challenges."
Over at the Left, the Democratic Union's Ehud Barak, a former prime minister, said that in the wake of the apparent election results "there are conditions to end Netanyahu's premiership."
