Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds the current lead in Israel’s third national election in less than a year, but remains short of a governing majority.

Former armed forces chief Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White party stopped short of conceding defeat, said the election could result in yet another deadlock.

CGTN’s Stephanie Freid reports from Tel Aviv.

To discuss:

• Simcha Rothman is an attorney and legal advisor for Meshilut — the Israeli Movement for Governability and Democracy.
• Omar Baddar is a political analyst and human rights advocate. He serves on the National Policy Council at the Arab American Institute.
• Debra Shushan is the government affairs director for J Street, a pro-Israel advocacy group.
• Mitchell Barak is an Israeli pollster and political analyst.

For more:

Prime Minister Benjamin @Netanyahu leads in #Israel’s third national election in less than a year but was short of a governing majority, nearly complete results show.https://t.co/xP2sG5xgwC

— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) March 3, 2020

UPDATE: Netanyahu's bloc three seats shy of a majority, with 92.51 percent of votes countedhttps://t.co/4YdAtbHfoV

— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) March 3, 2020

If Netanyahu gets a 61-seat majority, his immediate goal will be to head off his trial and punish the legal system for daring to investigate and prosecute him, Haaretz's editor-in-chief writes https://t.co/rglH6yQBoi

— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) March 2, 2020