In the May 29 elections, Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu won the race for prime minister with 50.4 percent of the vote, narrowly defeating Labor Party incumbent Shimon Peres, who took 49.5 percent of the vote. Netanyahu won by 29,457 votes, out of a total of 3 million votes.
In the separate balloting for the Knesset, 11 parties won seats.
The makeup of the new Knesset is:
New Knesset Former Knesset Labor
34 44 Likud 32* 32 Shas 10 6 National Religious Party 9 6 Meretz
9 6 Yisrael Ba’ Aliyah 7
— Hadash 5 3 United Torah Judaism 4 4 The Third Way
4 — United Arab List 4
2** Moledet 2 3 * In the new Knesset, the Likud list included two other parties: Tsomet, which held eight seats in the former Knesset, and Gesher, a new party * The United Arab List combines the Arab Democratic Party, which held two seats in the former Knesset, and Islamic Movement representatives.
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