Israeli Election Gives Edge to Netanyahu, Exit Polls Say

“I have a bad sense, even a sense of shame when facing you,” he said upon casting his ballot in Jerusalem. “We simply don’t deserve this,” he added. “We don’t deserve another terrible election campaign that declines to the point of filth.”

In public, Mr. Netanyahu was a whirlwind of upbeat energy on the stump, promising new hospitals, lower prices and other inducements tailored to marijuana smokers, Ethiopian-Israelis and Arab citizens, among others.

By contrast, Mr. Gantz’s message was dour and one-note.

Some voters said they had been turned off by the ugliness of Mr. Netanyahu’s campaign, and by the criminal charges against him.

“Bibi is corrupt and his campaign was dirty,” said Rotem Cnaan, a 33-year-old shopkeeper in Rehovot who said he usually votes for Likud but sat out Monday’s vote. “I can’t hear his voice anymore, I can’t stand his intonation, and his son Yair is just shocking.”

But Netanyahu loyalists said they saw him as a statesman of extraordinary gifts. “I’m a big believer in Netanyahu,” said Kobi Dadon, a leader in a firefighters’ union, after voting in Jerusalem. “We have never had such a leader in Israel. We had Begin and Rabin, and he is that caliber.”

The acrimonious campaign was the capstone to an unusually bitter year in Israeli politics. Mr. Netanyahu’s caretaker government lacked the mandate to make major spending and policy decisions, while politicians of all stripes were distracted by the back-to-back-to-back election fights.

Though Mr. Netanyahu last year passed the record of David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, to become the country’s longest-serving head of government, he also became the only sitting prime minister to be indicted on criminal charges. He was charged in November with offering political favors to media moguls in exchange for fawning coverage and expensive gifts.