JERUSALEM — Israel has been plunged back into political stalemate after complete election tallies showed neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his primary challenger secured enough support to form a governing majority.
Official figures released Thursday revealed Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc captured 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, falling far short of the 61 needed to govern and well below the 68 seats it once commanded, NBC News reported. The rival centrist and opposition bloc headed by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot finished with 48 seats, leaving the country facing weeks of complicated negotiations and the threat of yet another national vote.
The balloting on Tuesday marked Israel’s first general election since the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing war in Gaza, serving as a high-stakes referendum on Netanyahu’s long tenure, Al Jazeera reported.
Historic Arab turnout creates kingmaker dilemma
Parties representing Israel’s Arab minority achieved record representation, securing 19 parliamentary seats after Palestinian citizens of Israel turned out in substantial numbers, according to NBC News. Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am party was projected to claim eight of those seats.
While their numbers mathematically position them as potential kingmakers, both Netanyahu and Eisenkot had explicitly ruled out establishing a coalition with the Arab-led factions prior to the election, NBC News reported.
Divisions over the issue quickly fractured the opposition. While former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman have adamantly rejected relying on Arab parties, Democrats party leader Yair Golan urged his allies to embrace Jewish-Arab political cooperation, CNN reported.
Golan held talks with Abbas on Thursday, writing on social media: “This is a time for action. Our responsibility is not to miss the opportunity for change and the salvation of Israel.”
Eisenkot, who met with Bennett and Golan on Thursday to explore options for a viable coalition, faces an uphill battle to muster 61 lawmakers without Arab support, Al Jazeera reported. Political analysts noted that even if a full government cannot be assembled, the opposition could still attempt to cooperate with Arab factions to replace the Knesset speaker, who is aligned with Netanyahu, thereby curtailing the prime minister’s legislative power.
Accusations of interference and next steps
Tensions surrounding the vote escalated as Netanyahu and his Likud party alleged that Arab factions benefited from illicit foreign meddling by Qatar, claims that both Qatar and Abbas strongly denied, NBC News reported. Abbas condemned the rhetoric as a “campaign of incitement and delegitimization.”
Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who chairs the Central Elections Committee, referred the claims to the Shin Bet internal security agency for review, noting he could not verify the suspicions himself, according to Al Jazeera. However, the committee’s acting director general, Dean Livne, wrote in a published letter that officials found “no basis for allegations of systematic violations of electoral integrity,” NBC News reported.
The election outcomes remain provisional until the Central Elections Committee formally certifies and delivers them to President Isaac Herzog by Wednesday, CNN reported. Herzog will then conduct consultations with party leaders before choosing a candidate to attempt building a coalition.
That designated leader will have 28 days, with a possible two-week extension, to assemble a majority, CNN reported. If that person fails, Herzog can assign the mandate to a second figure for 28 days, after which lawmakers can recommend a third candidate. Should all efforts falter, Israelis could face their seventh general election in eight years by next spring, with Netanyahu remaining in office as caretaker prime minister throughout the deadlock.
