Netanyahu and wife Sara vote in Jerusalem

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu votes early after polling stations opened, with his wife Sara alongside him.

Addressing the TV cameras immediately afterwards, Netanyahu says Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett will be the second person he calls after results are made public, to offer a “unity government,” a slip of the tongue as this expression is used to describe a coalition of parties from opposing sides of the spectrum. First on Netanyahu’s list is Miriam Peretz, an Israeli educator who lost two sons in the IDF and was offered a place on the Likud list (she refused).

Netanyahu immediately emphasizes that he means “unity of the national camp” and says emphatically “there will be no unity with Labor.”

The third person Netanyahu plans to call, should he win the election, is the president of the United States, he says.