Israel's final election results leave neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot with a majority as Likud alleges interference

Israel’s final election results leave the country without an obvious path to a governing majority¹². Official figures released Thursday show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc with 53 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, far below the 68 it held at its peak in the previous parliament¹². The bloc backing his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief, won 48 seats, and parties led by Israel’s Arab minority won a combined 19¹². A government needs 61 seats¹².

What happens next

The results still have to be certified and delivered to President Isaac Herzog, which AP said would happen next Wednesday². Herzog will then consult party chairs and choose the candidate he believes has the best chance of forming a government¹. If no government emerges after several attempts, Israel would hold a new election early next year, AP reported².

The arithmetic is complicated by the positions of the two main blocs. Both have ruled out governing with the two main Arab parties, Ra’am and the Joint List¹. Eisenkot has said he is open, with conditions, to working with Arab-led parties, and lawmaker Ahmad Tibi said the opposition had approached him about replacing the Knesset speaker². Yair Golan, who leads the left-wing Democrats, called for a government formed “in partnership” with Arab parties¹. Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, who make up about 20% of the population, turned out in record numbers on Tuesday, NBC News reported¹².

The interference claims

After exit polls showed a setback, Likud issued a statement saying, “The elections in Israel have been stolen!” and linked the claim to foreign interference, without providing evidence, AP reported². Netanyahu and his allies also referred Arab parties to the Shin Bet security service over alleged Qatari involvement; Qatar denied it¹, calling the allegations “ridiculous and dangerous”².

Noam Sohlberg, the Supreme Court justice who heads the election committee, said he had received “serious suspicions” of foreign interference that he could not verify, and asked the Shin Bet to investigate². The committee wants findings within a week². Dean Livne, the committee’s acting director general, said there was “no basis for allegations of systematic violations of electoral integrity”¹, and said reports about the inquiry were unfounded and do not affect the final results².

Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas said his party had “no connection” to such conduct and accused Netanyahu of a “campaign of incitement and delegitimization” against Arab citizens¹. Eisenkot said Likud was trying to delegitimize the results because it lost². Herzog called it a “sensitive moment” and urged that an entire community not be tarnished².