Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday shared a compilation of remarks by Arab political leaders and opposition lawmakers, reiterating his opposition to forming a government with Arab parties, saying, “It is forbidden to form a government with them.”
In a post on X, Netanyahu shared a video featuring excerpts from speeches and statements by several Arab politicians and lawmakers, including Ahmad Tibi, Iman Khatib-Yasin, Mansour Abbas, Sami Abu Shehadeh, Ofer Cassif, Yousef Jabareen and Ayman Odeh.
The Arab leaders in the videos are heard batting for the Palestinian cause which the Right-wing Jewish factions see as anti-national.
Despite Netanyahu whipping up the rhetoric he may find the going tough in trying to form a government. Israel’s N12 news reported that Haredi (Orthodox Jews) newspapers Hamodia and Hamashbiz, stated that the Haredi parties say the want to be counted separately and not as part of the Netanyahu bloc. In addition, a source in the Torah Judaism party stated that they do not belong to any of the blocs. UTJ is projected to win 7 seats in the Knesset while Shas is projected to win 6. The other Haredi parties. Religious Zionism led by incumbent Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Otzma Yehudit led by Minister Itamar Ben Gvir are unlikley to break with Netanyahu.
Israel’s Opposition Leader and B’Yachad No. 2 Yair Lapid has declared a victory for the anti-Netanyahu majority following the election results, arguing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no viable path to forming a government, while urging supporters to exercise patience as coalition negotiations begin.
In a lengthy post on X on Friday, Lapid acknowledged that the results did not deliver an outright majority for his camp but maintained that the outcome represented a political victory, pointing to voter turnout and the number of seats secured by Netanyahu’s bloc.
“The people showed up,” Lapid said, referring to the voter turnout of 77.7 per cent, which he highlighted as the “highest” since 1999.
“Netanyahu got 53 seats. A crash. Even from that small number, 13 seats belong to parties that declare they aren’t Zionist. That leaves him 40. That’s what he’s got. No matter what he does, he has nowhere to pull a government from,” he said.
Declaring victory for the opposition camp, Lapid said, “So we won. It’s not a knockout victory. It’s a points victory. That counts too. A win is a win.”
He acknowledged that forming a government would be challenging and said the opposition owed it to voters who had participated in the election to make efforts towards forming a coalition.
“Now comes the truly hard part: trying to form a government. We owe it to those who stood in line on Tuesday, to those who flew in especially, to those who stood outside the polling station for eight hours and convinced people,” he said.
His remarks come as the Central Elections Committee of Israel on Friday published the final results of the national election, confirming the distribution of seats in the 26th Knesset, which is scheduled to be sworn in on November 10. The pro-Netanyahu bloc secured 53 seats, falling short of the majority required to form a government.
According to The Times of Israel, the Likud party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, emerged as the largest party with 27 seats, followed by Yashar with 21 seats.
B’Yachad secured 12 seats, while the Joint List won 11. The Democrats and Ra’am secured eight seats each, while Yisrael Beytenu, United Torah Judaism and Otzma Yehudit won seven seats each. Shas and Religious Zionism secured six seats apiece.
The final results leave the pro-Netanyahu bloc with 53 seats, the anti-Netanyahu bloc with 48 seats and the Arab factions with 19 seats, according to The Times of Israel.
The final voter turnout stood at 77.9 per cent of eligible voters, with 5,716,665 votes cast.
The Reservists, which secured 2.7 per cent of the vote, People of Israel with 1.7 per cent and Charedi Public with 0.2 per cent failed to cross the 3.25 per cent electoral threshold.
The final official results will be submitted to Israeli President Isaac Herzog on November 4, following examinations of possible errors or inquiries. The newly elected Knesset is scheduled to be sworn in on November 10.
Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism-Zehut party, reportedly met to coordinate their efforts following the election, according to Hebrew media reports cited by The Times of Israel.
While Likud emerged as the largest party in the election, the coalition bloc supporting Netanyahu failed to secure a majority in the Knesset.
