JERUSALEM (The Thursday Times) — The head of Israel’s election committee on Monday rejected a demand from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud to delay certifying last week’s election results, as Netanyahu said he was open to a “broad national government”.
Likud lawyer Ilan Bombach wrote to Justice Noam Sohlberg asking for an urgent meeting before Wednesday’s certification, citing “serious suspicions of foreign interference”. “The seriousness of the suspicions, combined with the lack of clarity regarding their nature and scope, make it impossible for the presidency and the Central Elections Committee to publish the certified results, as if nothing has happened,” he wrote.
Sohlberg refused. “The Central Elections Committee has no authority to withhold the certification of the results, nor does the committee have the authority to intervene in an ongoing investigation,” he replied. By law the results must be certified within eight days of the October 27 vote. He has already said the outcome would stand even if the suspicions were proved.
The allegations, that Qatar or other foreign powers secretly paid to raise turnout among Arab voters, have not been substantiated, and Israeli security agencies are expected to finish their inquiry soon. Likud has said a “dark cloud” hangs over the results and has claimed the vote was “stolen”.
Gadi Eisenkot, whose Yashar party leads the opposition camp, called it “a direct assault on Israeli democracy”. “This current offensive is the last resort of those who understand the magnitude of the defeat they have suffered,” he said. Yair Lapid said: “In a democracy, the winners form the government and the losers head to the opposition.”
Netanyahu, who hours after the vote had vowed a “strong, national, right-wing coalition”, wrote on X on Monday night: “From the very first day, our hand has been extended to form a broad national government.” He insisted he must lead it, and said he would not abandon his far-right and ultra-Orthodox partners. He said the public did not want a government dependent on the Arab parties Ra’am or the Joint List, which he accused of supporting terror.
His bloc won 53 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, eight short of a majority, even though Likud is the largest party with 27. Jewish-led opposition parties took 48 seats and Arab-led parties 19. All four Zionist opposition parties have ruled out serving in a government led by him.
