UTJ did surprisingly well, garnering the coveted 7th seat that seemed to always be just out of grasp, despite the many challenges for them in this campaign. But the real winner in this election was Yair Lapid and his party Yesh Atid.

Coming out of nowhere Yesh Atid pulled in 19 seats. They were probably the hardest working team in this election season, followed I think by Shas who also worked hard, and they were so successful because of the work they put in - Yagata uMatzata, Taamin. Bet Shemesh local Dov Lipman now makes it into the Knesset, making him the first MK from Bet Shemesh. He worked very hard on behalf of the campaign, and I wish him best of luck, and that he represent the interests of Bet Shemesh (in addition to the objectives he has set as the purpose of this Knesset run) in the Knesset.

Here is some video from the Yesh Atid celebrations last night, including a brief interview with Lipman.




and for good measure, here is the victory speech of PM Benjamin Netanyahu: