Last-ditch appeal to the right helps Netanyahu pull off surprise election win in Israel

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After a nail-biting climax at which the two biggest parties contesting Israel’s general election appeared to be heading for a tie, the Likud party led by the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has won a dramatic victory that few had predicted.

A late surge in voting – which many commentators believe was encouraged by Netanyahu’s last-minute declaration that he would never accept a two-state solution to the Palestinian question – pushed Likud past its main rival, the centre-left Zionist Union, headed by Isaac Herzog.