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+ FREE SHIPPINGTurnout was projected to be the high-
est since 1999 – more than 65.5% of reg-
istered voters cast ballots, according to
Israel’s Central Elections Committee.
Before the first two votes in April and
September last year, Netanyahu’s lead-
ership credentials were buoyed by
President Donald Trump’s pro-Israel
actions that include moving the U.S.
Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,
which Palestinians claim as part of their
future capital; recognizing the Golan
Heights as belonging to Israel instead of
Syria, in defiance of international law;
and pulling out of the 2015 Iran nuclear
deal with world powers, an accord that
Israel, Iran’s sworn enemy, opposed.
In January, the Trump administra-
tion released its plan for peace between
Israelis and Palestinians. The plan,
which Palestinians rejected even before
its release because of its perceived pro-
Israel slant, calls for Israel to be able to
annex Israeli settlements built on West
Bank land claimed by Palestinians.JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party won
the most votes Monday in the country’s
third election in 12 months, according to
exit polls, although it was not clear if it
will be enough to break the nation’s po-
litical deadlock.
The exit polls on Israel’s main TV
channels gave Netanyahu a narrow
lead, just one seat short of being able to
form a government if he enters into an
alliance with religious and nationalist
parties. Netanyahu needs 61 seats out of
120 to form a government.
Full results are due as early as Tues-
day.
Coalition governments are a main-
stay of Israeli politics.
Former commando Netanyahu hopes
to secure a record fourth consecutive
term in office, and fifth overall, with
support from nationalist, right-wing
parties.
Netanyahu is fighting for his political
survival after being charged in Novem-
ber with bribery, fraud and breach of
trust in connection with three separate
cases. He denied any wrongdoing and
called the prosecution a “witch hunt.”
Netanyahu’s trial will take place
March 17.
Netanyahu tweeted the word
“Thanks,” along with a heart emoji.
His main challenger, Benny Gantz
from the centrist Blue and White Party,
is a retired military chief who said Net-
anyahu is unfit for office because of the
charges.
“I hope that today marks the start of a
healing process, where we can begin liv-
ing together again,” Gantz said after vot-
ing Monday in his hometown of Rosh
Ha’ayin in central Israel. He warned vot-
ers not to “get drawn in by the lies or by
the violence” after an acrimonious cam-
paign.
Exit polls gave Gantz 52 to 54 seats.
After the official results come in, at-
tention will shift to President Reuven
Rivlin who is responsible for choosing a
candidate for prime minister. He is sup-
posed to select the leader who has the
best chance of putting together a coali-
tion.
The honor usually goes to the head of
the largest party, but equally important
is the number of lawmakers other than a
party’s leader who recommend him or
her to the president. Rivlin’s selection
will have up to six weeks to form a coali-
tion. If that fails, another candidate will
have 28 days to form an alternative co-
alition.
If that effort fails, new elections
would be held.
“This is usually a holiday, but to be
honest, I have no festivity in me, just a
sense of deep shame before you, the cit-
izens of Israel,” Rivlin said as he cast his
ballot Monday. “We don’t deserve this.
We don’t deserve another horrible and
filthy campaign like the one that ends
today, and we don’t deserve this endless
instability. We deserve a government
that will work for us.”There was a new complication for
Monday’s vote.
Election authorities created several
polling stations for the more than 5,
eligible voters under quarantine for the
coronavirus. Hundreds of voters arrived
at the stations wearing face masks and
gloves. Election officials sat behind a
clear plastic curtain.
“The corona thing is completely un-
der control. Today, we’ve taken all the
precautions that are necessary. People
can go and vote with complete confi-
dence,” Netanyahu said.
Some tried to lighten the national
mood.
Eretz Nehederet, the Israeli equiva-
lent of “Saturday Night Live,” urged Is-
raelis to send selfies of themselves vot-
ing to the television show, to be included
in an Instagram roundup. Families took
advantage of the rare nonreligious legal
holiday to vote, then shop.
Estie Palmer, who was leaving a Jeru-
salem polling station with her husband
and two toddlers, said she voted for the
centrist Blue and White Party “because I
don’t want the government to pander to
the ultra-Orthodox parties.” Netanya-
hu’s Likud Party has relied on the ultra-
Orthodox parties to form governments.
Palmer hopes the next government
will negotiate with the Palestinians.
“Peace would be nice, though I don’t
know what that means practically,” she
said.
Gerald Steinberg, a professor of polit-
ical science at Bar Ilan University, pre-
dicted Netanyahu’s trial will be “very,
very slow” and if he returns as prime
minister, he will seek to introduce a law
that would exempt him from being tried
while in office.
Nimrod Novik, an expert on Israeli
political affairs at the Israel Policy Fo-
rum, a New York-based American Jew-
ish organization, said that if the final
election results match the exit polls, and
Netanyahu wins, he will seek to annex
the West Bank.
He added that extending sovereignty
over the West Bank would present Is-
raelis with an untenable dilemma. “If we
grant the Palestinians equal rights we
risk losing our identity as a Jewish state.
If we don’t grant them equal rights, we
lose our democracy,” he said.Israel’s Netanyahu projected to win
Polls: Prime minister is
just short of coalition
Michele Chabin and Kim Hjelmgaard
USA TODAY
Ultra-Orthodox Jews vote in Israel on Monday. AFP VIA GETTY IMAGESSEOUL, South Korea – North Korea
fired two unidentified projectiles into
its eastern sea Monday, South Korean
officials said, after a monthslong hiatus
in weapons demonstrations.
The launches came two days after
North Korea’s state media said leader
Kim Jong Un supervised an artillery
drill testing the combat readiness of
units in front-line and eastern areas.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff
said the projectiles were fired from an
area near the coastal town of Wonsan
and flew about 149 miles northeast on
an apogee of about 22 miles. It said the
South Korean and U.S. militaries were
jointly analyzing the launches but
didn’t immediately confirm whether
the weapons were ballistic or rocket ar-
tillery.
North Korea probably tested one of
its new road-mobile, solid-fuel missile
systems or a developmental “super
large” multiple rocket launcher it re-
peatedly demonstrated last year, said
Kim Dong-yub, an analyst from Seoul’s
Institute for Far Eastern Studies. Such
weapons could overwhelm missile de-
fense systems and expand the North’s
ability to strike targets in South Korea
and Japan, including U.S. bases.
Kim Jong Un entered the new year
vowing to bolster his nuclear deterrent
in the face of “gangster-like” U.S. sanc-
tions and pressure. In late December,
he warned of “shocking” action over
stalled nuclear negotiations with the
Trump administration.
He said North Korea would soon re-
veal a “strategic weapon” and insisted
the country was no longer “unilaterally
bound” to a self-imposed suspension
on the testing of nuclear and intercon-
tinental ballistic missiles. Kim did not
explicitly lift the moratorium or give
any clear indication that such tests
were impending and left the door open
for negotiations.
South Korea’s presidential office
said National Security Director Chung
Eui-yong discussed the launches with
the South’s defense minister and spy
chief, and the officials expressed
“strong concern” over the North’s re-
sumption of testing activity, which
could raise military tensions.
Japan said that it had not detected
any projectile landing in its territory or
its exclusive economic zone and that no
sea vessels or aircraft were damaged.
“The repeated firings of ballistic
missiles by North Korea is a serious
problem for the international commu-
nity, including Japan, and the govern-
ment will continue to gather and ana-
lyze information and monitor the situa-
tion to protect the lives and property of
the people,” a Japanese Defense Minis-
try statement said.
In previous years, North Korea in-
tensified testing activity in response to
springtime military exercises between
South Korea and the United States that
it described as invasion rehearsals. The
allies announced last week that they
were postponing their annual drills out
of concern about the coronavirus out-
break in South Korea, which has infect-
ed soldiers from both countries.
Despite the North’s indifference,
South Korean President Moon Jae-in
has pleaded for a revival in inter-Kore-
an engagement. In a speech Sunday
marking the 101st anniversary of a ma-
jor uprising against Japanese colonial
rule, Moon called for cooperation be-
tween the two Koreas to fight infectious
diseases amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Amid the deadlock in nuclear nego-
tiations with the Trump administra-
tion, Kim suspended virtually all coop-
eration with South Korea in the past
months while demanding that Seoul
defy U.S.-led international sanctions
and restart economic projects that
would jolt the North’s broken economy.
North Korea has yet to confirm any
COVID-19 cases, although state media
hinted that an uncertain number of
people have been quarantined after ex-
hibiting symptoms. North Korea shut
down nearly all cross-border traffic,
banned tourists, intensified screening
at entry points and mobilized tens of
thousands of health workers.
Contributing: Mari Yamaguchi in
TokyoN. Korea fires unidentified
projectiles into the sea
Kim Tong-Hyung and Hyung-Jin Kim
ASSOCIATED PRESS