Netanyahu claims victory in Israel election after hard right shift

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed victory in Israel's election on Tuesday after exit polls showed he had erased his center-left rivals' lead with a hard rightward shift that saw him disavow a commitment to negotiate a Palestinian state.

Difficult coalition talks still lie ahead. Isaac Herzog, Netanyahu's chief opponent and head of the center-left Zionist Union, said "everything is still open" and that he had already spoken to party leaders about forming a government.

But after days in which Zionist Union appeared poised to defeat Netanyahu's Likud, the exit polls put the two parties in a dead heat. Netanyahu could have the easier path to forming a cabinet, which would put him on course to become Israel's longest serving leader.

He pulled off the feat with a pitch for ultranationalist votes in the final days of the hard-fought campaign, using tactics that could deepen a feud with the White House, at least as long as President Barack Obama remains in office.

Netanyahu has focused on the threat from Iran's nuclear program and militant Islam. But many Israelis had said they were tiring of the message, and the center-left had campaigned on social and economic issues, surging in polls as election day neared.

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Ultra-Orthodox Jews line up to vote in Bnei Brak, Israel, Tuesday, March 17, 2015. Israelis are voti …

Two television exit polls, for Channel 10 and Channel 1, said Likud and Zionist Union had each secured 27 seats in the 120-member Knesset. Channel 2 gave Netanyahu a narrow edge, with 28 to 27 for his challenger after polling stations closed.

"Against all odds: a great victory for Likud, a great victory for the national camp led by Likud, a great victory for the people of Israel," Netanyahu wrote on his official Twitter account.

Opinion polls in the run-up to the ballot had shown Zionist Union with a three to four-seat advantage over Likud, suggesting the public had warmed to Herzog, who won over voters with flashes of wit after enduring being lampooned for his short stature and reedy voice.

Final results are not expected until early on Wednesday morning.

COALITION BLOCS

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Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog accompanied by his wife Michal prepares to cast his vote in Tel Av …

A new centrist party led by former communications minister Moshe Kahlon could be the kingmaker in coalition talks. After the balloting ended, he said did not rule out a partnership with either Likud or Zionist Union.

The exit polls gave right-wing and religious parties - Netanyahu's traditional partners - about 54 seats, and left-leaning factions, 43 - both figures still short of a governing majority in the 120 seat parliament.

Turnout was around 72 percent, higher than the last election in 2013.

No party has ever won an outright majority in Israel's 67-year history, and it may be weeks before the country has a new government. Netanyahu will remain prime minister until a new administration is sworn in.

Naftali Bennett, leader of the ultranationalist Jewish Home party, said he had spoken with Netanyahu within minutes of the exit polls and agreed to open "accelerated" coalition talks with him.

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A woman waves an Israeli national flag outside a polling station in Tel Aviv March 17, 2015. Prime M …

"The nationalist camp won," Bennett, who advocates annexing parts of the occupied West Bank, told supporters.

But Zionist Union could find a lifeline from Kulanu and from Arab parties that united for the first time in a joint list of parliamentary candidates and came in third in the exit polls.

While they are unlikely to join a government, the Arab parties could give a center-left coalition tacit support and create a block against Netanyahu.

If the center-left is to assemble a government, it will also need the support of ultra-Orthodox parties, which the polls said would win 13-14 seats.

After the final results are in, and following consultations with political parties, it will be up to President Reuven Rivlin to name the candidate he deems best placed to try to form a coalition. The nominee will have up to 42 days to do so.

Ramping up his bid for right-wing votes, Netanyahu on election day accused left-wing groups of trying to remove him from power by busing Arab Israeli voters to polling stations, a statement that drew a sharp rebuke from Washington.

"We’re always concerned, broadly speaking, about any statements that may be aimed at marginalizing certain communities,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Some political rivals even accused Netanyahu of racism over the remarks.

The Obama administration has been angry at Netanyahu since he addressed the U.S. Congress two weeks ago at the invitation of Republican lawmakers, to oppose ongoing U.S. nuclear negotiations with Iran.

In the last days of campaigning as he sought to persuade supporters of smaller right-wing parties to "come home" to Likud, Netanyahu promised more building of Jewish settlements and said the Palestinians would not get their own state if he were re-elected.

Those sweeping promises, if carried out, would further isolate Israel from the United States and the European Union, which believe a peace deal must accommodate Palestinian demands for a state in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

When Netanyahu called the election in December, two years early, he looked set for an easy victory. But in the final weeks there has been a sense that change could be in the air. Some voters have talked of Netanyahu fatigue.

(Additional reporting by Luke Baker, Maayan Lubell, Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Ori Lewis; Editing by Peter Graff)

Reuters Videos
Netanyahu claims election victory, challenger says "everything open"

By Matt Spetalnick and Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After six years of testy relations, U.S. President Barack Obama may have to resign himself to the likelihood that he has not seen the last of Benjamin Netanyahu.

A better-than-expected showing by the Israeli prime minister in Tuesday’s closely fought election raises the prospect that he could remain a thorn in Obama’s side, with the two men increasingly at odds over Iran diplomacy and Middle East peacemaking.

U.S. officials responded cautiously as they waited to see whether Netanyahu or his center-left challenger, Isaac Herzog, would get the nod from Israel’s president to begin the long and messy coalition-building process.

Clearly the result that many of Obama’s supporters had hoped for – a repudiation by Israeli voters of Netanyahu’s hard-line approach – was not to be. Exit polls showed that his Likud party had erased its rival’s pre-election lead, putting the two sides in a dead heat.

“Looks like the White House will need to let the champagne chill a bit longer,” Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator for Republican and Democratic administrations, tweeted about the election outcome.

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Ultra-Orthodox Jews line up to vote in Bnei Brak, Israel, Tuesday, March 17, 2015. Israelis are voti …

The election came just two weeks after Netanyahu defied Obama with a politically divisive speech to Congress attacking U.S.-led nuclear talks with Iran. The final days of campaigning only served to deepen tensions between the right-wing leader and Washington.

Even as they insisted publicly on non-intervention in the Israeli campaign, Obama’s aides were taken aback by Netanyahu’s reversal of his previous declaration of support for creating a Palestinian state, a longstanding cornerstone of U.S. policy.

Netanyahu also drew a rebuke from the U.S. State Department for suggesting on election day that left-wingers were trying to get Arab-Israeli voters out “in droves” to sway the election against him.

“Netanyahu has managed an uphill climb in the last few days,” said David Makovsky, a former member of Obama’s team in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that collapsed last year.

“The way he has survived was to cannibalize part of the right and also adopt policy positions that are bound to create further friction with Washington,” said Makovsky, now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “He’s going to be in the next government one way or another.”

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves to supporters at the party headquarters in Tel Aviv …

Netanyahu could have the easier path to forming a cabinet, which would put him on course to becoming Israel's longest serving leader.

That prospect may not bode well for repairing U.S.-Israeli ties after Netanyahu’s congressional speech, which he delivered at the invitation of Obama’s Republican opponents despite strong objections from the president and many of Obama's fellow Democrats.

HOPING FOR AN OBAMA-FRIENDLIER GOVERNMENT

U.S. officials had left little doubt of their hope for an election outcome that would create a new ruling coalition more in sync with - or at least less hostile to - Obama’s agenda, especially with an end-of-March deadline looming for a framework nuclear deal in negotiations between Tehran and world powers.

As a prime minister, Zionist Union leader Herzog would be expected to take an Obama-friendlier course less confrontational over Iran and more open to renewed peacemaking with the Palestinians.

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Isaac Herzog (7th R) and Tzipi Livni (5th R), co-leaders of Zionist Union, stand with party members …

It would also be a chance to get past six years of slights, mutual suspicion and even antipathy at the top of the U.S.-Israeli relationship and return to traditional bipartisanship in Congress on the issue of Israeli security.

That will not be easy if Netanyahu remains in office - though some analysts suggest that tensions with Obama could be eased along with the threat of international isolation if the rivals decide to form a broad-based national unity government.

Efforts already were under way in Washington to lower the temperature.

“People say a lot of things during campaigns,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told CNN when asked about Netanyahu’s apparent reversal on Palestinian statehood.

“What we're focused on is the Israelis moving forward, forming a government and we will work with whoever is prime minister to see if we can make progress in what is a very tough and difficult area to do so,” she said.

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Likud party supporters listen to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (not pictured) deliver a …

Nancy Pelosi, the House of Representatives Democratic minority leader, said that as someone who loves Israel, she was "near tears" during Netanyahu's March 3 address, calling his remarks an "insult to the intelligence of the United States."

But on Tuesday, she said the U.S.-Israeli relationship would stay strong, whoever won, and declined to weigh in before the result on whether Netanyahu's speech hurt him.

"It's a very, very ... intellectual relationship, security relationship and an emotional one as well," she told reporters.

Underscoring the partisan divide over Netanyahu, Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz said: "His electoral success is all the more impressive given the powerful forces that tried to undermine him, including, sadly, the full weight of the Obama political team."

(Additional reporting by Peter Cooney; Editing by Howard Goller)

London (AFP) - Nigeria has begun the "final onslaught" against Boko Haram, the country's national security spokesman said on Tuesday, after the militants were ousted from the strategic town of Bama.

On a visit to London, Mike Omeri told AFP that "significant strategic military successes and gains" had been made against the Islamists in recent weeks.

"Bama (the second biggest town in Borno state) was retaken yesterday (Monday) and we have Abadam, Gwoza and Askira as part of the remaining areas where we still have this presence," he said.

Abadam, Gwoza and Askira are also in Borno, which has been worst hit by six years of violence and was under emergency rule from May 2013 to November last year with neighbouring Yobe and Adamawa.

The military announced that Adawama was "cleared" last Friday and that Yobe was retaken on Monday from Boko Haram, who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

There was no independent verification of the claimed successes, which followed the deployment last month of troops from Cameroon, Chad and Niger, as well as foreign mercenaries.

The operation not only aims at reducing the regional threat from the militants, after several cross-border attacks in recent months, but also to secure the northeast for elections to be held.

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A photo taken on March 15, 2015 in Madagali and released by the Nigerian army press service the next …

Voting was initially scheduled for February 14 but was rescheduled to March 28 because of the counter-offensive on the grounds that soldiers would not be available to provide security on polling day.

Omeri refused to be drawn on when the insurgency would be declared over, although President Goodluck Jonathan said in an interview published last Wednesday that Borno would be free in three weeks.

"As for the other three areas (Abadam, Gwoza and Askira), help is coming," said Omeri, who announced last week that 36 towns had been recaptured from Boko Haram.

"Soldiers are still out there working hard and we're en route to the final onslaught because it has started already from Bama."

The insurgency has left more than 13,000 people dead since 2009 and forced some 1.5 million others to flee their homes.

But Omeri said that once the affected communities were free, "they will be advised to return home and continue with their lives".

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Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan speaks during his visit to the Nigerian Stock Exchange in Lagos …

- Voter security -

Jonathan is facing a stiff challenge from the main opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari, a former miliary ruler who has attacked the president's record on tackling Boko Haram.

Buhari, who headed a military government for 20 months from December 1983, has accused Jonathan of consistently failing to provide leadership.

Chief among the retired general and his party's complaints have been an alleged lack of support and equipment provided to soldiers, which only recently seems to have been rectified.

The opposition has also voiced fears for the integrity of the overall result if the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the violence in its northeast stronghold are disenfranchised.

Repeated bomb and suicide attacks in recent weeks have raised fears about the safety of polling stations.

But Omeri told a separate news conference: "We are confident there will be a level of security to enable citizens to vote."

Boko Haram were now "running with their tails between their legs", he added, indicating that the militants were being contained within the northeast.

"Boko Haram are not being pushed into neighbouring countries, we are pushing them to an area where we are finding a solution to their menace," he said

Reports have suggested that Boko Haram fighters were amassing in Gwoza, which Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau declared part of a caliphate last year and is considered the group's headquarters.

On private military contractors, including South Africans who have been seen alongside Nigerian troops in the northeast, Omeri denied reports that some have been fighting on the front line.

He maintained their presence was only for training purposes and no mercenaries were involved.

Baghdad (AFP) - Iraqi troops and militia looted and burned homes and destroyed villages after breaking the Islamic State group's months-long siege of a Turkmen town last August, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

"Following the operations to end the Amerli siege, pro-government militias and volunteer fighters as well as Iraqi security forces raided Sunni villages and neighbourhoods around Amerli in Salaheddin and Kirkuk provinces," the New York-based group said in a report.

"During the raids, militiamen, volunteer fighters and Iraqi security forces looted possessions of civilians who fled fighting during the onslaught on Amerli, burned homes and businesses of the villages' Sunni residents," HRW said.

They also "used explosives and heavy equipment to destroy individual buildings or entire villages," it added.

HRW said that many of the villages targeted in the raids were ones that IS jihadists had either passed through or used as bases to attack Amerli.

"Iraq can't win the fight against (IS) atrocities with attacks on civilians that violate the laws of war and fly in the face of human decency," its deputy Middle East and North Africa director, Joe Stork, said.

"Militia abuses are wreaking havoc among some of Iraq’s most vulnerable people and exacerbating sectarian hostilities."

IS spearheaded an offensive last June that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad, sweeping security forces aside.

Reeling from the assault, Baghdad turned to Popular Mobilisation units -- paramilitary forces that are dominated by pre-existing Shiite militias.

The units have played a key role in the fight to drive IS back, but relying on such groups further entrenches them in Iraq, giving them an expanded power base that will be difficult to dislodge.