Eisenkot vows to form government as Netanyahu bloc falls short of majority

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc is projected to win 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, falling eight seats short of the 61 needed for a majority. The opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot is expected to take 48 seats, leaving 13 short of the threshold. With nearly 90 percent of ballots counted as of Wednesday, neither side has secured a decisive result, forcing a stalemate that centers on the 19 seats won by Arab-majority parties.

The election took place on Tuesday, October 28. Turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel reached approximately 80 percent, a factor that drove the historic seat count for Arab-led parties. Netanyahu’s Likud party is on track to become the largest single party, capturing 26 seats and 20.65 percent of the vote. Eisenkot’s Yashar Party is projected to win 21 seats with 16.16 percent of the vote. The Together party, co-led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, is expected to secure 12 seats and 9.07 percent of the vote.

Netanyahu campaigned on the premise that he would win five more terms. Before the vote, he warned that an opposition victory would lead to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, a move he described as signaling the end of the Jewish state. After the vote, he called a government relying on Arab parties a shame and a disgrace. A Likud statement shared by Netanyahu claimed the election was stolen by Arab parties, a claim that police and the Central Elections Committee have dismissed.

Eisenkot stated on Wednesday that the public had voted against Netanyahu and promised to form a Zionist government. He acknowledged in a September interview that he saw no Arab party that accepted his principles, despite the mathematical necessity of their support. Bennett told supporters in Tel Aviv that the government of October 7 was going home. Lapid accused the Netanyahu bloc of suffering a crushing defeat and cited previous warnings that Netanyahu ignored before the October 7 attack.

On the far right, Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit is projected to win seven seats with 5.58 percent of the vote, less than half of the 15 he sought. In August, Ben-Gvir stated that some Palestinians in Gaza should not live and called for Israel to kill 30 to 40 people there every night. Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party is on course for six seats with 4.78 percent of the vote. Smotrich warned of high turnout in Palestinian communities and told supporters that Jewish settlements will be established in Gaza.

The Joint List, led by Yousef Jabareen, is projected to win 12 seats with 9.14 percent of the vote, making it the third-largest party by vote share. Jabareen said change would come through a true and equal Jewish-Arab partnership. Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am party is on track for eight seats with 6.09 percent, beating its target of seven. Abbas accused Netanyahu of using a scare tactic to mobilize right-wing voters.

Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu is projected to win seven seats with 5.93 percent of the vote. On October 15, Lieberman predicted that the change bloc would reach 61 seats or more. He has since urged patience, saying a much better and more optimistic picture could emerge as counting continues. No formal coalition talks have been announced as of Wednesday evening.

The Knesset will convene for its first session in November to select a speaker and begin the process of forming a government. Candidates who hold mandates must submit lists of preferred partners to the President within 28 days of the election. If no candidate can command a majority, the President may assign the task to another candidate or call for new elections.