JERUSALEM — Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday accepted the certified results of the Oct. 27 parliamentary elections and began consultations with party representatives on who should be asked to form a new government.1,3,5
Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc nor the bloc allied with his chief rival, opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot, secured the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-seat parliament, known as the Knesset. The outcome set up weeks of bargaining over a possible alliance between the two rivals or an arrangement between Eisenkot and Arab-led parties, while Netanyahu and his supporters continued to claim the vote had been taken from them.1,3,5
In the Oct. 27 vote, Netanyahu's coalition won 53 seats, down from the 64 his coalition secured in the previous election, while Eisenkot's bloc won 48 seats, according to the results. The two Arab-led alliances together won 19 seats after higher turnout among Arab voters. Netanyahu's Likud won 27 seats and Eisenkot's centrist Yashar party won 21 seats, leaving both well short of a majority even together.3,4,5
"The elections are over. Now is the time to face reality," Herzog said. He began meetings with party leaders on Wednesday night. Three factions aligned with Netanyahu's religious-nationalist base recommended that Netanyahu be given the chance to form a coalition, while a fourth, led by a former Netanyahu ally turned rival, recommended Eisenkot. Eight more parties, including the two Arab-led factions, were scheduled to meet Herzog on Thursday, with Yashar and Likud speaking last.1,3
Earlier on Wednesday, Israel's elections commission said that after a thorough investigation of all parties' claims of fraud, it had found "no evidence of irregularities that compromised the integrity of the election or affected its results." At a ceremony in Jerusalem where committee chairman Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg presented the official results to Herzog, Sohlberg said the results are legally binding. "In recent days, we have heard voices trying to cast doubt on the election results and to undermine their legitimacy. This is a real danger," Sohlberg said.1,5
"One of the foundations of democracy is the ability to have a peaceful transfer of power. This stems from the understanding that the will of the electorate obligates us all," Sohlberg said. He said public trust in the electoral process is "easy to destroy, yet very difficult to repair." The committee has said claims about foreign actors seeking to influence the election are serious and under investigation, but that it does not believe any such interference affected the results even if it had happened. "At this stage, these are merely suspicions, and even if they are substantiated, the scope of their potential impact is limited," Sohlberg said.1,5
A separate investigation by the Shin Bet intelligence service into allegations of foreign interference is still ongoing. The agency is headed by David Zini, a Netanyahu appointee. In a closed meeting Wednesday, Sohlberg read out a Shin Bet assessment saying the agency believed there had been a "widespread phenomenon involving the influx of substantial funds into Israel from foreign states," including from countries hostile toward Israel. The Shin Bet provided no evidence for that assertion. The Associated Press obtained a transcript of the assessment from a person who attended the meeting and requested anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting.1
Netanyahu and his supporters have repeatedly claimed that Arab-led parties had "stolen" the election, possibly with foreign assistance. The elections commission said its review did not support those claims. Netanyahu's Likud party did not respond to a request for comment. The Shin Bet had sought approval from Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Tuesday to question several elected officials, including Ra'am party leader Mansour Abbas and other senior Arab lawmakers, but the attorney general rejected a request to question elected officials without supporting evidence.1,3
Eisenkot's prospects improved when Ra'am, a major Arab-led party, said it would recommend him, which the Israeli news site Ynet said would bring his expected support to 56 lawmakers, still short of a majority. The other Arab-led party, the Joint List, which holds 11 seats, has not announced its position. Israel's Channel 12 reported that the party was expected to coordinate with Eisenkot, endorsing him if asked or abstaining if he preferred, which could push him past 61. Degel HaTorah, which holds four of United Torah Judaism's seven seats, said it would recommend neither candidate after breaking with Netanyahu over his coalition's failure to pass legislation exempting Haredi men from military service, The Times of Israel reported.3
Herzog urged compromise to avoid another election, telling party leaders that "not every commitment and promise can be fulfilled." "In order to prevent another round of elections and to build a stable and good government here for the people of Israel, I expect the factions and their representatives to understand that, in the current reality, not every commitment and promise can be fulfilled," he said. He said he had "great respect" for Israel's Palestinian minority, which makes up about 20 percent of the population. "I condemn the coarseness and racist expressions that we have heard recently," he said.3,5
One scenario under discussion is a unity government between Netanyahu and Eisenkot. Since Likud and Yashar together do not hold enough seats, such an arrangement would require at least two additional parties and could involve a rotating premiership of the kind used in the Naftali Bennett-Yair Lapid government formed in 2021 and collapsed in 2022. Netanyahu in recent years has refused to break away from his bloc of two ultranationalist right-wing parties and two ultra-Orthodox parties, which other parties reject. Eisenkot made what was described as an "unequivocal" commitment last month not to serve in a government under Netanyahu, even in rotation, and other leaders in his bloc made similar pledges. Netanyahu previously reached a unity deal in 2020 with Benny Gantz, then the leader of the center-left bloc, under which Netanyahu served first, but the government collapsed after less than a year and Gantz never took over.4
A second scenario is a government of the four Zionist parties opposed to Netanyahu, which hold 48 seats, relying on one or both Arab parties to reach a majority of the 67 seats held outside Netanyahu's coalition. If the bloc relied on Ra'am, led by Mansour Abbas, it could form a minority government with 56 seats if members of the more confrontational Joint List abstained. Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing Democrats party in that bloc, said that "anyone who believes in democracy" cannot "disqualify the votes of hundreds of thousands of citizens because of their origins." He added that "anyone who cares about Israel's security, its resilience, and its character as a liberal and democratic state must do everything in their power to replace this government." Eisenkot said he intended to "immediately act to translate the clear parliamentary majority into action" and to "form a Zionist government." During the campaign, Eisenkot said Arab parties did not meet his conditions for joining a government, including a commitment to Israel as a Jewish state, recognition of Hamas as a terrorist organization, and mandatory military or national service for all citizens. There has been speculation that he could instead use Arab backing for limited steps such as legislation, replacing the speaker of the Knesset or swearing in a temporary government.4
Herzog has several days to announce his choice, expected to be Netanyahu or Eisenkot, based on who he believes is most likely to assemble a coalition. The president has wide discretion and does not have to choose the leader of the largest party. The nominee will then have 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension. If neither man succeeds, Israel would hold another election early next year.1,3,5
