Israel’s election: 53 seats, a probe and weeks of talks

Ammar Awad/Reuters T : T T : INTERNATIONAL Netanyahu’s bloc is short of a majority as the election committee orders an inquiry into ‘foreign funding’.

seats for Netanyahu’s bloc

T : T With 93% of ballots counted 53 Likud and its far-right and ultra-Orthodox allies are short of the 61 needed to govern in the 120-seat Knesset, the BBC reported.

for Eisenkot’s Yashar and three other Jewish opposition parties

T : T The other side 48 Arab-led parties are heading for a record 19 seats.

absentee ballots

T : T Still to count 480 k As many as 480,000, cast by soldiers, diplomats, hospital patients and others. They could still shift the final seat count.

Shin Bet told to look into ‘serious suspicions’

Ammar Awad/Reuters T : T ‘Foreign funding’ Election committee chief Justice Noam Sohlberg gave no details. Haaretz cited a source as saying the claim was that Qatar funded efforts to raise Arab turnout.

T : T An attack on democracy aimed at enabling foreign control of the Knesset. Likud, on the inquiry

T : T The reply Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh said the losing side was “constructing a racist blood libel” and calling on the security agencies to overturn the result.

turnout, the highest in more than two decades

T : T Weeks of talks ahead 77.7 % President Isaac Herzog expects official results next week, then will invite the leader with the best chance of forming a government.

The full story, and what comes next

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