Israel Vote Leaves Netanyahu Bloc Short of Majority — SkimNews
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- Israel held elections on Oct. 27, but neither Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc nor Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition alliance won enough Knesset seats to form a government.
- Gadi Eisenkot leads an opposition alliance choosing between a unity government with Netanyahu and a coalition with the Israeli-Arab parties, whose unusually strong election performance is deeply unpalatable to most of the Jewish opposition.
- Benjamin Netanyahu remains caretaker during negotiations; if no governing coalition emerges, Israel could hold new elections.
- Israel’s Oct. 27 campaign centered more on domestic issues than debates over Palestinians or foreign policy, although Israeli forces were fighting in southern Syria and southern Lebanon, Israel was at war with Iran, continued to face potential Houthi strikes and remained engaged with the Palestinian conflict.
- Dana El Kurd argues that Netanyahu and the Israeli opposition have only “peripheral disagreements” over Palestinian rights and conditions in the territories, while every major contender supports the occupation.
- Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich would likely be removed from ministries controlling police, prisons and much of the West Bank in a Netanyahu loss; El Kurd says that change would immediately improve Palestinian living conditions.
- Gaza has no Jewish-Israeli party that even considers the prospect of Palestinian self-governance, El Kurd notes.
Why it matters: For Palestinians in the West Bank, the Oct. 27 result exposes a narrow material divide: El Kurd assesses that every major contender supports occupation, yet a Netanyahu loss would likely remove Ben-Gvir and Smotrich from ministries controlling police, prisons and much of the West Bank, immediately improving living conditions there.
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