Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is locked in a tight electoral contest with opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot in the country’s first election since the October 7 Hamas attacks. Exit poll projections suggest a neck-and-neck contest, setting the stage for tense coalition negotiations to determine who will form the next government.
However, according to partial results, with 25.2% of votes counted at 7:30am IST, the Central Elections Committee projected the pro-Netanyahu bloc bagging 63 seats and the anti-Netanyahu bloc 49. Netanyahu faces a tough challenge in the first election since the 2023 Hamas attacks While the final results are expected to be announced on October 30.
The remaining eight seats are held by the nonaligned Joint List of Arab factions, according to the Times of Israel. He has faced scrutiny from the opposition over security failures, his policies towards Palestinians and Israel’s growing international isolation.
Earlier reporting noted: Israel’s Kan 11 and Channel 13 news networks’ exit polls show the two rival blocs projected to win 51 seats each, and Arab parties won about 18. The exit poll of Israel’s other main broadcaster, Channel 12, places Netanyahu’s bloc at 50 seats while Eisenkot at 52 seats, narrowing their earlier projections. A party needs 61 parliamentary seats in Knesset to form a majority coalition government. Earlier reporting noted: Final results are expected over the next 48 hours, but it would set the stage for weeks of political jockeying before a prime minister is declared — or another round of elections is called.
In his first remarks after the exit poll projections, Netanyahu said the results showed his bloc retained the support of a “decisive majority among the Zionist and Jewish public” and vowed to form a new government, even as his coalition appeared to fall short of a parliamentary majority. “We must put in place a strong government of the right,” Netanyahu told cheering supporters. The Jewish and Zionist majority must unite,” he said. “It is out of the question to have a government that is backed by Arab parties,” he said, according to AFP. “Netanyahu, don’t you dare use Israel’s security for your political needs,” Eisenkot said. Addressing Israel’s security establishment, Eisenkot said that they served the state and not Netanyahu, calling him “a caretaker prime minister, without a mandate or the people’s trust”. Earlier reporting noted: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main rival, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, are on a path to a tie in the Israeli general election, according to exit polls. However, both Netanyahu’s governing coalition and Eisenkot’s “change” bloc appear to have fallen well short of the 61 seats needed for a Knesset majority.
Results are seen as voters’ disappointment in Netanyahu’s alliance with the far-right and anger over draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews, which appeared to have shrunk his bloc’s majority in parliament, jeopardising his return to power.
Arab parties Joint List and Raam are projected to win a record 19 seats – the largest Arab representation ever, according to exit polls.
Both have said they’d support Eisenkot on some level, having rallied supporters to help oust Netanyahu and prevent a new term they believe would be existential, according to Bloomberg.
