JERUSALEM (The Thursday Times) — Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party said on Monday that “a dark cloud hangs over Israel’s election results” until a probe into alleged foreign funding is finished, challenging the head of the election committee a day after he said the outcome would stand.
“It is highly perplexing that Justice Sohlberg describes the allegations of foreign funding as extremely serious, yet simultaneously, and before the investigation has even concluded, preemptively determines that they have no impact on the election results,” said the statement, posted on Netanyahu’s X account.
The party said just 4,612 votes separated a seat moving from the Arab party Ra’am to the right-wing bloc, a shift it said would have “completely altered” the result. Netanyahu’s bloc won 53 seats, and one more would leave it seven short of the 61 needed for a majority.
The Shin Bet security agency has been investigating claims that Qatar or Turkey paid Arab voters to turn out. Qatar has rejected the claims as “ridiculous and dangerous”.
Justice Noam Sohlberg, chairman of the Central Elections Committee, said on Sunday that the vote was run properly and reflected the will of voters, and that the allegations, even if proved, would not invalidate the overall result. He is due to hand the official results to President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday, when consultations on forming a government begin.
Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot welcomed Sohlberg’s statement and accused Likud of trying to delegitimise the result. Avigdor Liberman backed Eisenkot for prime minister on Monday.
