Netanyahu Predicted To Fall Short of Knesset Majority as Arab Parties Could Hold Key to Power

TEL AVIV — Initial election exit polls, as voting booths closed Tuesday night, showed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a setback that could yet end his carer. That, however, is by no means certain, as the tricky dynamics of Israeli parliamentary politics mean a defeat of Mr. Netayanhu is not a foregone conclusion. He could yet remain prime minister, possibly on an interim basis.“This is a vote of total no-confidence in Netanyahu,” former army chief and relative political novice, Gadi Eisenkot, said as polls closed at 10 pm, and television stations projected his bloc to have won the largest number of seats in the next 120-member Knesset. Results of election exit polls could yet change. The final tally would be announced in the early hours of Wednesday morning. A larger number of votes than ever from outside the country and remote army posts could shift the Knesset seats map, and those results would not be published until Thursday. While for now Mr. Eisenkot looks like the more likely candidate to be next prime minister, he might fail to gather enough support, forcing a new election. In that case, Mr. Netanyahu will remain as care taking premier. Renewed confrontation with Iran, or another Mideast skirmish, could yet change the political map once again. Yet a bloc of centrist parties led by Mr. Eisenkot have edged out Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party and its right wing coalition partners. Likud was projected to win 24 Knesset seats, more than Mr. Eisenkot’s Yashar party’s 22 seats. Yet the so-called “change bloc” of opposition parties, with at least 52 seats, emerged as larger than the ruling coalition’s 50 seats.”You can see that the people of Israel want change, though the numbers now are very confusing,” the head of field strategy for former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s “Together” party, Zvi Plotnitsky, told The New York Sun. “The people of Israel don’t want Likud. They don’t want the leaders of October 7.” If these results remain, President Isaac Herzog would most likely task Mr. Eisenkot with the first attempt to coalesce with at least 61 Knesset members. Mr. Eisenkot’s job would be difficult, as some members of his bloc vowed not to participate in a government that would rely on non-Zionist Arab parties. The change bloc could coalesce with Zionist parties to form the next election, Mr. Plotnitsky said, “and the Arab parties are not Zionist.” Yet two Arab parties emerged as the biggest surprise of the exit polls. Perhaps spooked by some of Mr. Netanyahu’s partners, like internal security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, the Arab parties reached a record number of up to 18 seats. Mr. Eisenkot has hinted he could form a ruling coalition of 61 Knesset members from his 52-member bloc with the support of the Arab parties, whose members would be excluded from government positions. Mr. Netanyahu, on the other hand, has no such option. Mr. Eisenkot’s aides are also hinting they might lure in Likud defectors to support a Yashar-led coalition. Known worldwide as Bibi, the current Israeli leader first captured the premiership in June 1996. While he was forced out of the leadership for short periods since then, he has dominated Israel politics, serving a cumulative 19 years at the helm, longer than most democratic leaders. At the age of 77, he is also the oldest premier in Israel’s history.

Netanyahu Predicted To Fall Short of Knesset Majority as Arab Parties Could Hold Key to Power

Netanyahu Predicted To Fall Short of Knesset Majority as Arab Parties Could Hold Key to Power

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