The Math

The Knesset's site provides details as to the voting of last Tuesday, now that all ballots were counted.

The "threshhold barrier" was 62,760.
(In other words, in Israel's system, a party first has to prove its worth by getting at least 2% of all valid votes cast).

Then, all the valid votes were divided by 120 and that figure, the per seat quotient, was 24,609.

If you want to know, 3,188,075 actually voted; 49,704 either voted a blank slip or placed 3 or more ballot slips in the envelope or placed a ripped slip or slips of two different parties. Which leaves 3,138,371 "valid votes".

Baruch Merzel's party receieved 25,935; Kleiner's 2,883, and Tzomet 1,509.

So, to my mind, the lost votes from the identifiable 'Right' equaled 30,327. I'm sure that of the 49,000+ invalid votes, there were many thousands that could have gone to NU/NRP.

The NU/NRP received 223,838 which represents 9 seats.

Likud received 282,070 which came out 12 seats.

In other words, the 60,000 difference between the two translated into a 3-seat parity.

If the NU/NRP had been awarded those "lost" votes, it could have picked up one or two more seats.

Well, thank you Baruch and Michael.