Netanyahu, Eisenkot Blocs Deadlocked After Vote — SkimNews
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- Israel recorded its largest turnout in a generation, while exit polls put Benjamin Netanyahu’s alliance roughly level with Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition; one updated poll showed a small Netanyahu lead, two showed ties, and counting was expected to last days.
- Benjamin Netanyahu declared Likud the largest party, demanded a “strong right-wing government” and said Israel could remove the threat from Iran “once and for all” with President Trump.
- Gadi Eisenkot declared that “the public wants change,” warned Netanyahu not to use Israel’s security for political needs during his caretaker term, and floated a minority government.
- Raam and the Joint List were projected to win as many as 17 or 18 seats combined, their strongest showing ever, and emerge as kingmakers even though Netanyahu ruled out including them and Eisenkot and his partners balked.
- Mansour Abbas said the strong Arab turnout converted “frustration and despair” into “hope” and made forming a government that could replace Netanyahu in “every possible way” his first priority.
- Isaac Herzog will invite the leader he thinks has the best chance to assemble a coalition once official totals and seats are allocated; a normal majority requires at least 61 of 120 lawmakers, while analysts also weighed a Netanyahu-Eisenkot unity government.
- Special polling stations drew hundreds of thousands of votes from military bases, hospitals, prisons and embassies that exit polls did not reflect; those votes tended to favor Netanyahu’s coalition in the previous election.
Why it matters: With neither bloc possessing the 61 seats needed for a majority and Arab parties projected at 17-18 seats, coalition negotiations turn on whether Netanyahu or Eisenkot accepts support they have publicly resisted. The unresolved choice leaves Isaac Herzog without an obvious invitee and keeps Eisenkot’s floated minority-government option in play.
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