Netanyahu's Bloc Falls Short, Coalition Talks Set to Begin

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will begin bargaining for a governing coalition after final results released early Friday showed his bloc control 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset. The main opposition holds 48 seats and Arab-led parties secured 19, a historic showing. Any government requires a majority of 61 seats. Netanyahu, the country's longest-serving prime minister, remains in office while negotiations proceed. "Now comes the truly hard part," centrist politician Yair Lapid wrote on X, adding: "If you want to know if something's happening behind the silence you're hearing now, the answer is yes."

Results must be certified and delivered to President Isaac Herzog next Wednesday. Herzog will then designate an individual to assemble a government. That person can be the head of the party that received the most votes, which would be Netanyahu, or a candidate chosen by party leaders. If attempts to form a coalition fail repeatedly, Israel faces a new election early next year. Herzog said this week he intends to use his power to prevent that outcome. The new Knesset is scheduled to be sworn in Nov. 10. Before a government is formed, opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot's bloc could team with Arab-led parties to elect a Knesset speaker and gain control of the parliamentary agenda.

In the hours before the final tally was announced, Netanyahu and his Likud party amplified unsubstantiated claims that Arab-led parties had "stolen" the election with possible foreign assistance. Netanyahu posted on X Friday that forming a coalition with Arab parties is forbidden. Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who heads the election committee, said he received "serious suspicions" of foreign interference and, in a letter to the Shin Bet security agency, asked the agency to investigate while stating he could not verify the claims. Israeli media reported members of Netanyahu's party pointed to Qatar. Qatar denied involvement, calling the allegations "ridiculous and dangerous." Acting Director General Dean Livne of the election commission said reports about the investigation had been "entirely unfounded," adding: "It does not affect the final results that will be submitted to the president, nor does it concern any particular sector of the population." The Shin Bet said its inquiry was not meant to "cast aspersions" on any group that "exercised its right to vote in a democratic and lawful manner."

The election committee wants findings from the Shin Bet within a week. Arab-led parties make up 20% of Israel's population and recorded their highest-ever turnout, a shift the opposition attributed to anger over Netanyahu's far-right allies such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose party lost seats. Hundreds of Israelis have held rallies urging Eisenkot to cooperate with Arab-led parties, a step taken only once before, briefly, in 2021. "I believe we should join forces and cooperate with the Arab parties, a legitimate population in the state of Israel," said Miri Sklair, a resident of Jaffa. Beny Engalrd, a Tel Aviv resident, noted: "There are options for all of this, not like in the United States, where there are only two parties."

Rallies and coalition meetings were paused Friday as much of Israel began Shabbat. If Netanyahu leaves office, he faces yearslong corruption allegations and an inquiry into security failures before the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack.