Netanyahu's Bloc Edges Eisenkot After Final Count, but Neither Reaches Knesset Majority

The Central Election Committee has now released its final count of ballots from Tuesday's vote, and the arithmetic leaves Israel without an obvious government. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc, built around his Likud party, finished with 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. The anti-Netanyahu bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot, head of the Yashar party, took 48. A secure majority needs at least 61, so neither side is close.

The seat breakdown is specific. In Netanyahu's camp, Likud won 27, United Torah Judaism 7, Otzma Yehudit 7, Shas 6 and the Religious Zionist Party 6. In Eisenkot's camp, Yashar won 21, B'Yachad 12, the Democrats 8 and Yisrael Beytenu 7. The two Arab-led lists took 19 seats between them, the Joint List 11 and Ra'am 8. That is a record, beating their earlier high of 15. Turnout was the highest in decades.

Before the vote, the field had sorted into two camps. One was the governing coalition of right-wing, far-right and religious parties around Netanyahu. The other was a mix of right-wing, centrist and liberal parties united mainly by the aim of removing him. With neither able to govern alone, attention has turned to the Arab parties and whether they could join a government or at least support one. Netanyahu has ruled out working with them. Eisenkot has also rejected the idea in the past, though there are signs that some parties in his bloc might be open to it.

Yair Golan, chairman of the left-liberal Democrats, said he had met Eisenkot, former Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Mansur Abbas, head of Ra'am. He called for talks with the Arab-led parties, writing on X after seeing Eisenkot that "the rescue of Israel is at stake." Whether the right-wing factions in Eisenkot's bloc would go along remains to be seen. A unity government including both Netanyahu and Eisenkot has also been floated, though that too may be unpalatable to moderate voters.

The count has been shadowed by claims from Netanyahu and Likud that the election was stolen by Arab parties, with large-scale foreign involvement led by Qatar and Turkey. Netanyahu said evidence would be handed to police, the Shin Bet and the Central Elections Committee, and called the alleged interference, including bribing voters, an "unprecedented shock." Israeli police said they had no evidence to support the claims, neither investigative nor informational. A senior election committee official denied them as well. Acting director general Dean Livne wrote, as quoted by the Times of Israel, that there was no basis for allegations of systematic violations.

Qatar categorically denied funding or interfering in the election, and spokesman Majed Al Ansari accused certain Israeli politicians of a fresh disinformation campaign. Sami Abu Shehadeh, chair of one party in the Joint List, called the claims a new phase of incitement. Mansour Abbas welcomed any investigation and said Ra'am had nothing to do with it. Eisenkot urged political actors not to exploit unclarified information to undermine the official results.

Outside voices weighed in too. UN human rights chief Volker Türk said he hopes the next government will "change course massively" and respect international law. He noted that Israel's recent operation in the West Bank city of Hebron had displaced more than 2,000 people, with homes and businesses destroyed and movement restricted, and warned that collective punishment is a grave violation. German Bundestag deputy speaker Omid Nouripour told DW that Arab Israelis had trusted democracy and voted in droves, and that Netanyahu's campaign against them appeared to have mobilized voters to the point that his camp lost its majority.

The formal steps come next. President Isaac Herzog will receive the official results next week and then consult every faction. Official final results are due November 4. The president usually picks the leader of the largest party, though he need not, and that nominee has 42 days to assemble a coalition. Earlier reporting flagged some 430,000 to 480,000 double-envelope absentee ballots, cast largely by soldiers, prisoners and diplomats, still in the count. Herzog has urged the parties to come with open minds and to avoid another round of elections.