By Said Amouri</p> <p>JERUSALEM (AA) – Israel’s Blue and White alliance of retired Gen. Benny Gantz on Wednesday conceded defeat in general elections in the country, local media reported. </p> <p>"The result is quite unprecedented and indicates the level of expectation [for an alternative] … Our party consists of right, left, religious and secular. In 70 days we managed to achieve the same amount of Knesset seats as a party which exists since the 1970s," daily Yediot Ahronot quoted Gantz as saying.</p> <p>"[Benjamin] Netanyahu gathered all of the extremists and cannibalized his partners," he added.</p> <p>Blue and White co-leader Yair Lapid, for his part, said: "One cannot understate our achievement in this election: In a matter of weeks we established a party fit to rule, and part of the DNA of a ruling party is never to give up.”</p> <p>“I am telling the Likud and the coalition: 'We are going to make life miserable for you. The days when the opposition desperately sought to enter the government are over," Lapid was quoted as saying by the daily.</p> <p>According to preliminary results cited by Israeli daily Haaretz, Netanyahu’s Likud-led coalition captured 65 seats in the 120-member Knesset.</p> <p>Initial results gave Likud 35 Knesset seats; United Torah Judaism and the Shas Party eight seats each; Yisrael Beiteinu five seats; the Union of Right-Wing Parties five seats; and the Kulanu Party four seats.</p> <p>Likud’s main rival, Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party, meanwhile, clinched 35 seats in the assembly.
