{"id":660121,"date":"2026-10-29T01:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T01:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/660121\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T01:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T01:00:17","slug":"the-guardian-view-on-israels-elections-netanyahu-lost-his-mandate-if-opponents-unite-hell-lose-power-too-editorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/660121\/","title":{"rendered":"The Guardian view on Israel\u2019s elections: Netanyahu lost his mandate. If opponents unite, he\u2019ll lose power too | Editorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benjamin Netanyahu has lost his mandate<\/a> but not, so far, power. While final votes are still being tallied, most voters picked his opponents on Tuesday. His bloc\u2019s share of seats remains the largest, but appears to have slumped by around 10, leaving it below the 61 needed for a majority in the Knesset. Palestinian Israeli parties surged, and are projected to almost double the 10 seats they held. The result is that Mr Netanyahu\u2019s main challenger, Gadi\u00a0Eisenkot, a former head of the military, now faces a choice: fall into line with Mr Netanyahu\u2019s racist fearmongering or work with Arab-led parties.<\/p>\n

The prime minister who oversaw shocking security failures ahead of the Hamas atrocities of 7\u00a0October 2023 still pitches himself as \u201cMr Security\u201d. On trial for corruption<\/a>, he has persistently attacked democratic institutions, especially the judiciary. He embraced and then indulged the ultra-right as they cheered on brutal settler violence<\/a> in the occupied West Bank. (Itamar\u00a0Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich lost ground in these polls, but perhaps due to their vision\u2019s permeation of mainstream politics more than a revolt\u00a0against it.) Mr Netanyahu\u2019s war on Iran has destabilised the region. The tens of thousands of Palestinians killed by his government\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza have barely featured in the election campaign, but its cost for Israeli hostages<\/a> and international support for Israel have been noted by voters.<\/p>\n

Gadi Eisenkot. Photograph: JNA\/Zuma Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Mr Netanyahu relied on fear, campaigning with the slogan \u201cthe right or Palestine\u201d and accusing<\/a> Palestinian citizens of Israel, around a fifth of its population, of trying to \u201csteal the election\u201d. They have often boycotted their democratic right<\/a>, in a system stacked against them, with politics moving rightwards. Mr\u00a0Eisenkot\u2019s bloc gives them little reason for optimism<\/a>; Tuesday\u2019s turnout testifies to their desperation to see an end<\/a> to the most extreme government in Israel\u2019s history. Millions of Palestinians living under illegal Israeli occupation got no vote at all.<\/p>\n

Mr Netanyahu, the consummate survivor, may pin his hopes on another election<\/a>. For now, as incumbent, he holds extra cards. The greatest danger is that he pushes Donald Trump into a renewed offensive on Iran after the midterms, seeing perma-war as political salvation.<\/p>\n

Mr Eisenkot<\/a>, one of many burned by their dealings with the prime minister, is unlikely to risk a \u201cunity government\u201d. His bloc could remove Mr\u00a0Netanyahu \u201cif it is brave enough\u201d, observed Ahmad Tibi<\/a> of the Joint List ticket of Palestinian parties. In campaigning, most opposition Israeli politicians ruled out a coalition with the Joint List or Ra\u2019am (the\u00a0United Arab List) \u2013 except on terms that they will\u00a0not accept<\/a>. But the Palestinian parties have made clear that they are open to cooperation and there is precedent. Mr Netanyahu himself reportedly made overtures<\/a> to Ra\u2019am in 2021; instead\u00a0it joined the coalition that unseated him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can no longer accept Netanyahu\u2019s racist distinction between Jewish and Arab votes,\u201d wrote Yair Golan<\/a>, head of the centre-left Democrats \u2013\u00a0noting that Mr Netanyahu talks of a Zionist majority but relies on the support of non-Zionist Haredi parties. Mr\u00a0Eisenkot may fear that supporters will not tolerate a deal but they will not thank him for failing to boot out Mr Netanyahu when given the chance. That would also allow the prime minister to turn this result into an ideological victory. Israel defines itself as Jewish and democratic. Mr Eisenkot and his partners should accept every vote and citizen as equal.<\/p>\n

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section, please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benjamin Netanyahu has lost his mandate but not, so far, power. While final votes are still being tallied,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-660121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}