JERUSALEM (The Thursday Times) — With two-thirds of ballots counted in Israel’s election, Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc has 54 seats to Gadi Eisenkot’s 48, but the Arab-led parties’ 18 seats mean the opposition and the Arab lists together would hold a majority of 66 in the 120-seat Knesset.
The partial results at 66 per cent counted, reported by AFP, show Netanyahu’s lead narrowing further from the 57-47 margin with 42 per cent counted earlier on Wednesday. The figures are still likely to change as more votes are counted, and more than 650,000 double-envelope ballots are only tallied in the days after polling.
The Arab parties’ arithmetic
On these numbers, neither Netanyahu’s right-wing and religious camp nor Eisenkot’s opposition reaches the 61 needed to govern alone. Eisenkot could cross that line only by relying on the Arab parties, which most of his allies were reluctant to do on the campaign trail. Netanyahu has already ruled out such a coalition as “shameful” and claimed a “decisive majority” for the right among Jewish voters.
The Arab-led lists are heading for one of their strongest results after a record turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel, and Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas has said no government can be formed without taking them into account. No Arab party has sat in a governing coalition except Ra’am, which briefly joined the Bennett-Lapid government in 2021.
What happens next
The Central Elections Committee has warned the final count could run into Friday. President Isaac Herzog will then consult every party before choosing who gets the first chance to form a government. Read our explainer on the process.
