Netanyahu likely wins another term as Israeli prime minister

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won a solid victory in Tuesday's national elections. With 99.5 percent of the ballots counted, his Likud Party had taken 29 or 30 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, or parliament, The New York Times reports.

Polls released Friday showed that his rival Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union party had a four- or five-seat lead and was picking up steam. Right before the election, Netanyahu promised that as long as he was in office, no Palestinian state would be established, a statement that angered many of his opponents.

During Likud's election party early Wednesday in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu said that he was "proud of the Israeli people that, in the moment of truth, knew how to separate between what's important or what's not and to stand up for what's important." Zionist Union won 24 seats. Netanyahu now has to cobble together a coalition of at least 61 seats.

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