Israeli president accepts election results, begins talks on new government

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday accepted the certified results of last week’s parliamentary elections as legally binding and began consultations with party representatives on forming a new government. The move dealt a blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to discredit the vote, in which he and his allies lost their majority in parliament, known as the Knesset, while Arab-led parties made historic gains.“The elections are over. Now is the time to face reality,” Herzog said.Netanyahu and his supporters have repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims that Arab-led parties had “stolen” the election, possibly with foreign assistance.Herzog began consultations with party leaders on Wednesday night to determine whom to designate to form a government — a process that could bring Netanyahu’s opponents to power. Story continues below advertisement Commission finds no fraud in Israel's election Israel’s elections commission said earlier on Wednesday that after a thorough investigation of all parties’ claims of fraud, it had found “no evidence of irregularities that compromised the integrity of the election or affected its results.”Netanyahu’s Likud party did not respond ...