With 91.7% of ballots tallied, neither Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc nor Gadi Eisenkot’s has crossed the threshold for a Knesset majority, with the seat breakdown mirroring Wednesday’s final count.
Netanyahu’s alliance commands 53 seats to Eisenkot’s 48 both well shy of the 61 required to govern in the 120-seat parliament.
Breaking down the party-level results: Likud, headed by the Israeli occupation’s prime minister, captured 26 seats; Eisenkot’s Yashar party secured 21; and the Arab parties, running on two separate lists, collectively took 19.
That arithmetic leaves Netanyahu’s bloc eight seats adrift of a majority and Eisenkot’s 13 short. Both sides are now locked in a standoff, as neither can assemble a government absent deals with rival factions.
Soldier and Absentee Ballots Hold the Key
More than 600,000 double-envelope ballots — encompassing votes by soldiers and other eligible absentees — are due to be fully counted overnight into Friday, a process that could redraw the seat map.
Channel 12 reported Likud leading among the double-envelope boxes tallied so far, with 29,253 envelopes opened. The channel had said Wednesday that counting would commence at 1:00 a.m. Thursday.
The outcome of that count will prove decisive: it determines whether either camp can govern alone or is forced into protracted coalition horse-trading.
Meanwhile, Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog is reportedly advocating a two-year Netanyahu-led government, conditioned on Netanyahu stepping down at the end of that term and receiving a full pardon, according to Channel 14.
In a separate appeal, i24 reported that Herzog has urged all parties elected to the 26th Knesset to enter coalition talks with flexibility and openness, warning against the prospect of another national election.
Trump Waiting in the Wings
Yedioth Ahronoth reported that US President Donald Trump could intervene directly in “Israel’s” political affairs should the impasse drag on, citing his stake in shielding financial ventures that stand to benefit associates. The paper suggested that protecting those interests might motivate him to shape political developments as Netanyahu confronts an uncertain electoral horizon.
At Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, Trump told reporters that his public backing had bolstered Netanyahu’s standing when asked about polling that showed the premier slipping. “When the message of support came out, it helped him a lot,” Trump said, assessing that Netanyahu was “probably winning, or there’s a tie.”
Source: Israeli media (edited by Al-Manar)