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The Blue and White Party, led by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, conceded defeat last night to incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud.

Lapid, who is number two in Blue and White, vowed to fight Netanyahu from the opposition. He said: “We didn’t win this round … [but] no one can minimise our achievement in these election. Netanyahu, we are going to embitter your lives. We will demand a state commission of inquiry on the submarines affair, and we won’t relent from Netanyahu’s indictments. We’ll turn the Knesset into a battleground. And we’ll do another thing: we’ll show [the public] what a real alternative looks like. We’ll show the people what life can look like with a government that cares about it.”

Gantz said the party was at a difficult moment, but reiterated: “We achieved an exceptional result, more than a million people cast [our party’s] ballot. That result informs us of the size of the expectations out there. Within 70 days we came to be on par with a party that has existed since the seventies.”

President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that Netanyahu’s victory is good for peace. “Everybody says you can’t have peace in the Middle East, with Israel and the Palestinians. I think we have a chance. I think we have now a better chance with Bibi having won. He’s been a great ally and he’s a friend. I’d like to congratulate him on a well-thought-out race,” he said.

Netanyahu was also congratulated by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Czech President Milos Zeman. Modi tweeted: “My dear friend Bibi, Congratulations! You are a great friend of India, and I look forward to continuing to work with you to take our bilateral partnership to new heights.”

US National Security Advisor John Bolton said yesterday that he believed the US plan for Israeli-Palestinian talks will be published in the “very near future,” although he did not specify a date.

Yesterday, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin announced he would begin consultations with leaders of political parties regarding the formation of the next government at his residence in Jerusalem next week. In an unprecedented move, he said the meetings with party leaders will be held on camera and on the record in order to “promote transparency”.