JERUSALEM (The Thursday Times) — Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc has won 53 seats in Israel’s 120-seat Knesset with all votes counted, eight short of a majority and 11 fewer than it won in 2022, while Arab-led parties took a record 19 seats, leaving neither side with a clear path to power.
Former army chief Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition bloc won 48 seats in the October 27 election, the first since the October 7, 2023 attacks and the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran that followed.
Eight short
A government needs 61 seats. Netanyahu’s Likud and its far-right and ultra-Orthodox allies fall eight short, after holding 64 seats in the outgoing parliament. On paper, Eisenkot’s bloc and the Arab parties together have 67, but all but one of the Jewish parties have ruled out governing with or relying on the Arab lists, leaving those 19 seats in limbo.
Netanyahu has called for “a strong right-wing national government” and said Israel must not be governed with the support of “anti-Zionist Arab parties”. His Likud party has claimed, without evidence, that the Arab vote was boosted by foreign money, prompting the election committee chairman to ask the Shin Bet to investigate. Qatar has rejected the claims as a disinformation campaign.
What happens next
Once the results are formally certified, President Isaac Herzog will consult every faction before asking the leader he judges most likely to succeed to form a government, a process that could take weeks. Herzog has urged the parties to do everything they can to avoid another election.
