Israel's voters have produced a Knesset that refuses to hand either side the 61 seats needed to govern, leaving the country in a familiar but sharpened kind of stalemate. Netanyahu's bloc holds 53 seats and Eisenkot's 48, while the Arab-led parties, at a record 19, now stand as the quiet arbiters of who might govern. The decision rests on old fears and new arithmetic, and on whether the final count due on November 4 leaves any room for a government to be built.
Israel Election 2026: Netanyahu Bloc Falls Short of 61 as Arab Parties Emerge as Kingmakers
Neither side can reach 61, and 19 Arab-led seats sit in between
Mark
Neither side has 61. Why does everything turn on 19 seats?
Mimi
Because the Arab-led parties are the only block large enough to tip a confidence vote. Eisenkot's bloc has 48 and Netanyahu's 53, so whoever gets their votes, or their abstention, has the edge.
Mark
But they're two parties, not one.
Mimi
Right. The Joint List has 11 and Ra'am 8, with different leaders. Abbas is open to joining a coalition. Tibi says the Joint List wouldn't take ministries but might back a government from outside for commitments on crime and Bedouin home demolitions.
Luke
Worth saying these positions come from interviews and reports dated October 28 and 29. They can change in negotiations.
Mark
And the Jewish parties on Eisenkot's side?
Mimi
Bennett and Liberman have both pledged not to rely on Arab parties. Without them, Yashar and The Democrats have just 29.
Luke
And Eisenkot hasn't said what framework he would use. That's a gap, not a refusal or an acceptance.
Mark
Does a government really need 61?
Mimi
No, it needs more votes for than against. Bennett-Lapid took office 60 to 59 with one abstention in 2021. But a minority coalition struggles to pass laws.
Luke
Also, the seat numbers are provisional at 98 percent of stations, and the 2022 comparisons involve merged and split lists, so the changes are rough.
El Pulso
- Neither bloc reaches 61, and the Arab-led parties' 19 seats have become the pivot everyone must reckon with.
- Netanyahu rules out relying on Arab parties, while Eisenkot's partners Liberman and Bennett have pledged the same, cutting his path to a majority.
- Ra'am's Mansour Abbas says he is open to joining an Eisenkot-led coalition, and the Joint List would back a government from outside for concessions on crime and demolitions.
- Haredi parties remain at odds over the draft law, and every possible coalition runs into a sharp dispute over conscription and who sits at the table.
- Confidence votes need only more yes than no, so the final count on November 4 and any outside support will decide whether a fragile government can survive.
Israel's voters have produced a Knesset that refuses to hand either side the 61 seats needed to govern, leaving the country in a familiar but sharpened kind of stalemate. Netanyahu's bloc holds 53 seats and Eisenkot's 48, while the Arab-led parties, at a record 19, now stand as the quiet arbiters of who might govern. The decision rests on old fears and new arithmetic, and on whether the final count due on November 4 leaves any room for a government to be built.
With 98 percent of polling stations counted, Israel's 2026 election has left the Knesset split with no bloc able to reach the 61 seats needed to govern. Netanyahu's bloc stands at 53 and Eisenkot's at 48, while the Arab-led parties hold 19, a record that now shapes every path forward. Official results arrive on November 4.
The arithmetic is hard for Eisenkot. Adding the Arab-led parties would clear the threshold on paper, but Liberman and Bennett have both pledged not to rely on them, and Eisenkot himself has ruled out a minority government backed by those parties. Golan is the most open, urging a government of change with Israel's Arab citizens, though he will not sit with the Haredi parties or with Likud under Netanyahu.
Abbas says everyone is talking to Ra'am and that his party would join an Eisenkot-led coalition if it proves viable, recalling that Ra'am became the first Arab-majority party to join an Israeli government in 2021. Ahmad Tibi of the Joint List says his party would not take ministries but could back a government from outside in exchange for action on crime in Arab communities and an end to Bedouin home demolitions.
A government does not strictly need 61, only more votes for than against. Still, a coalition below that mark would depend on outside help to pass laws and survive. The questions now are whether Eisenkot's side can assemble a winning confidence vote, and whether the November 4 count shifts any of these numbers.
With 98 percent of polling stations reported, Israel's 2026 election has produced a Knesset in which neither side can reach the 61 seats needed to govern. The provisional count, drawn from the Central Elections Committee figures as reported by N12 and Calcalist on the morning of October 29, puts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc at 53 of the 120 seats and the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot at 48. The Arab-led parties hold the remaining 19, a record, and that number now shapes every path forward. Official results are due November 4.
Netanyahu's bloc is made up of Likud with 26 seats, Shas with 7, United Torah Judaism with 7, Otzma Yehudit under Itamar Ben-Gvir with 7, and Religious Zionism–Zehut under Bezalel Smotrich with 6. Eisenkot's bloc consists of his new party Yashar with 21, Naftali Bennett's B'Yachad with 12, Yair Golan's The Democrats with 8, and Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu with 7. The Arab-led side is split between the Joint List, led by Yousef Jabareen, with 11 seats, and Ra'am, led by Mansour Abbas, with 8.
Compared with 2022, the Netanyahu bloc is down 11 seats, from 64 to 53. Likud fell from 32 to 26, now including Gideon Sa'ar's New Hope, and Shas from 11 to 7. The Eisenkot bloc gained two, from 46 to 48, though the lists have been reshuffled. Yashar is new and won 21. B'Yachad, which now carries Yesh Atid with Yair Lapid as number two, has 12 against Yesh Atid's 24 in 2022. The Arab-led parties rose from 10 seats to 19: the Joint List went from 5 to 11 after Balad, which missed the threshold in 2022, rejoined, and Ra'am from 5 to 8. The Democrats, a Labor-Meretz merger, doubled from 4 to 8.
The arithmetic is difficult for Eisenkot's side. Adding the Arab-led parties would clear 61 on paper, but several of his own partners have said no. Liberman has pledged not to form a government that relies on Arab parties. Bennett has made the same pledge this time, although he led a government that included Ra'am in 2021. Without those two, Yashar and The Democrats hold only 29 seats between them.
Eisenkot himself ruled out, before the vote, a minority government relying on Arab-led parties, according to Al Jazeera, and has not since set out any framework for working with them, per Ynet. Golan is the most open, urging a government of change in partnership with Israel's Arab citizens, though he says he will not sit with the Haredi parties, or with Likud while Netanyahu leads it.
Netanyahu has called it unthinkable to set up a government relying on anti-Zionist Arab parties, though Abbas says Likud has also approached him. Eisenkot has rejected serving under Netanyahu, including in a rotation; Netanyahu says partners are welcome without one. Eisenkot's stated priority is a Zionist government committed to military conscription, which collides with the Haredi parties. United Torah Judaism quit Netanyahu's government over the draft law.
Abbas told Channel 12 that everyone is speaking with Ra'am, and said he would join an Eisenkot-led coalition if it proves viable. In 2021 Ra'am became the first Arab-majority party to join an Israeli government. Ahmad Tibi of the Joint List said it would not seek ministries or formal coalition membership, but could back a government from outside in exchange for commitments on crime in Arab communities and an end to Bedouin home demolitions.
A government does not strictly need 61. It needs more votes for than against in a confidence vote, and parties can join, back from outside, or abstain. The Bennett-Lapid government was sworn in 60 to 59 in 2021 with one abstention, and Yitzhak Rabin's government relied on outside Arab support after 1993. But a coalition below 61 needs outside help to pass laws and survive. What to watch is whether Eisenkot's side can assemble a confidence vote that wins, and whether the final count on November 4 shifts any of these numbers.
Citas Notables
Everyone is speaking with us.— Mansour Abbas, Ra'am leader, to Channel 12
It is unthinkable to set up a government that relies upon anti-Zionist Arab parties.— Benjamin Netanyahu, as reported by The Times of Israel
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