{"id":661265,"date":"2026-10-30T03:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T03:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/661265\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T03:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T03:24:14","slug":"israels-final-election-results-show-neither-netanyahu-nor-rival-can-immediately-form-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/661265\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s final election results show neither Netanyahu nor rival can immediately form government"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>\u2019s right-wing bloc won 53 seats in Israel\u2019s 120-member Knesset, or parliament, well below the 68 it had controlled at its peak in the previous parliament. <\/p>\n

The bloc supporting Netanyahu\u2019s main rival, Gadi Eisenkot<\/a>, won 48 seats in an extremely tight election race<\/a>, meaning neither secured the 61 seats needed to form a government.<\/p>\n

The count is complete, but the results still need to be certified and submitted to President Isaac Herzog next Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Herzog will then consult with party chairs<\/a> and choose a candidate \u2060who he thinks has the best chance to form a government.<\/p>\n

\"Image:Yashar Party leader Gadi Eisenkot at a polling station in Herzliya on Tuesday.Amir Levy \/ Getty<\/p>\n

Parties led by Israel\u2019s Arab minority made historic gains, winning a combined 19 seats in a race in which Palestinians with Israeli citizenship headed to the polls in record numbers Tuesday, many hoping to oust Netanyahu and far-right members<\/a> of his coalition, including Bezalel Smotrich, his finance minister, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.<\/p>\n

Both leading blocs have ruled out the possibility of forming a government with the two main Arab parties, Ra\u2019am and the Joint List. But their rise as potential kingmakers<\/a> has brought the complex realities faced by Palestinian Israeli nationals into fresh focus.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the election, Netanyahu and other members of his coalition amplified allegations of foreign election interference<\/a>, referring Arab parties to the domestic security service, the Shin Bet, for investigation over allegations of Qatari intervention.<\/p>\n

\"Image:Ra’am party leader Mansour Abbas votes Tuesday with his family in Maghar.Mahmoud Illean \/ AP<\/p>\n

Qatar denied the allegations. Mansour Abbas, the head of Ra\u2019am, said his party had \u201cno connection\u201d to such conduct and urged a full investigation. He also accused Netanyahu of a \u201ccampaign of incitement and delegitimization<\/a>\u201d against Arab citizens.<\/p>\n

Dean Livne, the acting director general of Israel\u2019s Central Elections Committee, said in a published letter sent to a member of parliament that there was \u201cno basis for allegations of systematic violations of electoral integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the election, both Netanyahu and Eisenkot ruled out forming a government with the Arab parties. <\/p>\n

\"Image:Yair Golan, the leader of Israel\u2019s Democrats.Gil Cohen-Magen \/ picture alliance via Getty<\/p>\n

But Yair Golan, the head of the smaller left-wing Democrats party, called for a government formed \u201cin partnership\u201d with Arab parties. \u201cWe must no longer accept Netanyahu\u2019s racist division<\/a> between Jewish votes and Arab votes,\u201d he said Wednesday on X.<\/p>\n

The majority of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship are the descendants of those who remained within what became Israel during the war that led to the country\u2019s founding in 1948. At the time, hundreds of thousands more fled or were expelled from their homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s right-wing bloc won 53 seats in Israel\u2019s 120-member Knesset, or parliament, well below the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-661265","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\/661265","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=661265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}