This archive report was first published on 18 September 2019.
On September 18, 2019, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main challenger, Benny Gantz, were in a waiting game as exit polls showed a tight race in the country's general election.
At Gantz's event in Tel Aviv, supporters were initially excited, but as the official vote count ground slowly on, Gantz called for patience.
"Naturally we will wait for the final results. But as it appears, we were up to the task and no less important, we did it our way," Gantz told the crowd, adding he would seek to form a broad unity government.
Meanwhile, at Netanyahu's election party, supporters chanted "Bibi King of Israel" and sat down exhausted, checking their phones as election signs were discarded in empty chairs.
Netanyahu finally emerged around 3am, a full five hours after the exit polls, and showed no sign he was ready to give up his tenure as Israel's longest-serving prime minister anytime soon.
"At this time, for the sake of all these goals, Israel needs a strong government, a stable government, a Zionist government. A government that is committed to Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people," he said.
