of staff at the homeland security department during the trump administration. welcome to the programme. the votes are being counted in israel, in the fifth election the country has staged in under four years. the voters have before them two coalitions the hard right bloc led by benjamin netanyahu, and a coalition of right, leftist and arab parties led by the current prime minister yair lapid. netanyahu, remember, is still facing charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and yet, in spite of it all, the first exit polls that emerged in the last hour suggest he could be on the brink of a record sixth term. this is how the coverage began. showing netanyahu s likud party on 31 seats, against yair lapid predicted 2a seats. we bring in our middle east correspondent. let s bring in our middle east correspondent tom bateman. as says that the exit polls are a good start. how trustworthy of the exit polls in israel? exit polls in israel? they tend to be broadly exit polls in
different forms of the matrix that won t sit together. that has been one problem and then you add to that benjamin netanyahu becomes the has become a very polarising figure, and members who were loyal to him on the right ring, on the religious right wing is welcome that have said over the years they will no longer work with him, largely because he is facing a trial for corruption allegations which she denies. but that has added just another factor which means it has been almost impossible for listening to for this thing to function. many people said if you remove mr netanyahu from the mix, then you can have a configuration whether it is the centre right of the religious right, that can then operate in israeli politics. untilthat that can then operate in israeli politics. until that happens, we are going to have to keep getting these kinds of potential results, if mr netanyahu cannot go ahead and form this pretty razor thin majority coalition after tonight. we this pretty razor-thin