Israel's election leaves no side with a workable majority

Israel's Central Elections Committee released final seat counts on Wednesday, showing that neither the governing nor the opposition bloc has secured the 61 seats necessary to command a majority in the Knesset. The results leave the country in a political stalemate after almost five million votes were tallied.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc is projected to hold 53 seats. His Likud party accounts for 26 of those seats. The remaining seats are distributed among United Torah Judaism, Shas, and Otzma Yehudit, which are each projected to win seven seats. The Religious Zionist Party is expected to take six.

The opposition bloc is projected to hold 48 seats. Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party leads this group with 21 seats. B’Yachad, the joint list led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, is projected to win 12 seats. Yair Golan’s Democrats are expected to take eight, while Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu is projected to secure seven. The Arab parties are projected to hold 19 seats total, with the Joint List winning 12 and Ra’am taking seven.

The path to a governing coalition remains unclear. Eisenkot has refused to serve under Netanyahu, including in a rotation arrangement, making a unity government unlikely. Other opposition leaders have also ruled out joining a coalition led by the prime minister. Exit polls suggested a minority government might be possible if it could pass a confidence vote without 61 seats, but resistance within the opposition bloc to relying on Arab parties complicates that option.

Yair Golan argued on Wednesday that the opposition holds a de facto majority if Arab parties are included. He stated that the opposition bloc reaches 65 seats in that calculation. Golan noted that 65 is more than 55, the threshold for a majority. He suggested that if Netanyahu considers a Zionist bloc, he should subtract the 16 members of the non-Zionist Haredi parties from his own camp.

Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen said his party was ready to pave the way for the ousting of the Netanyahu government. In a post on X, he described the alternative as one built on Jewish-Arab partnership. Ahmad Tibi of Hadash-Ta’al told Army Radio later that the opposition bloc could form a government if it has the courage. Tibi said the Joint List is extending a hand and is ready to help.