Blue and White alliance concedes the race

The Blue and White alliance, the political centrists that had posed the greatest threat to Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party, conceded the election on Wednesday evening, acknowledging that it did not have the votes to take control of the government.

“We didn’t win on this round,” Yair Lapid, one of the alliance leaders, said.

Mr. Gantz, who had once been seen as a viable contender for prime minister, speaking to a crowd in Tel Aviv a short time earlier, said he would respect the decision of the president to choose the party leader he saw fit but vowed to fight on “in any way I can.”

“At the moment, with the blocs, this is the reality,” he said. “The war is not over.”

He said he and his Blue and White party remained committed to serve the people of Israel.



“We’re all democrats,” he said. “We respect the decision of the people, of the president. We will serve them from any position that we will be in the future.”

Mr. Gantz, a retired lieutenant general and former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, had reached out for allies across the political spectrum and sought to make Mr. Netanyahu’s expected indictment on corruption charges the main issue in the race.