Who Won Israel’s Election? Netanyahu 53, Eisenkot 48

Our exit-poll piece had Eisenkot’s bloc at 52 or 53 seats. The count moved the other way. At the 2:32 p.m. update Likud held 26 seats and Yashar 21, with B’Yachad and the Joint List on 12 each, the Times of Israel reported. Netanyahu’s bloc is 8 seats short of 61 and Eisenkot’s is 13 short. Netanyahu’s coalition held 68 seats in the outgoing Knesset.

Eisenkot spoke at Yashar headquarters in Tel Aviv about 30 minutes after polls closed, the Times of Israel reported: “These are still exit poll results, and we must wait for the final count.” He added: “The public voted for change.” After 3 a.m., Netanyahu told Likud headquarters in Jerusalem: “The right-wing bloc has a clear, decisive majority among the Zionist public.”

Likud said on Wednesday that “the elections in Israel were stolen by Arab parties that support terror and the elimination of the Jewish state,” according to the Times of Israel. The statement alleges bribery, threats, forgeries and illegal software, and says Likud gave police, the Shin Bet and the Central Elections Committee “hundreds of testimonies.” These are Likud’s allegations. The reporting cited here does not verify them.

The committee answered that it had launched its integrity monitoring “as it does in every election” and that “all inquiries from parties concerning election integrity or alleged errors in the results will be examined.” Joint List chair Yousef Jabareen told AFP: “We do not see the possibility of being part of an Israeli government coalition.”

Ra’am chair Mansour Abbas told Channel 12 after the exit polls: “Everyone is speaking with us, not just from the ‘change bloc.’” Jabareen told Channel 13 on Wednesday that anyone offering “a substantive and genuine alternative to Netanyahu’s government of bloodshed will have to talk” to his party, the Times of Israel reported. The same report says Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Liberman have pledged not to sit with Arab parties this time.

Set that against the arithmetic. Eisenkot’s 48 plus the 19 Arab seats would pass 61, but Bennett and Liberman have pledged to stay out of any deal with them, and Jabareen has ruled out joining. Netanyahu’s 53 is eight seats short, and the reports cited here name no party ready to supply them.

Speaking at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Herzog said: “We must do everything we can, certainly after yesterday, to avoid another round of elections.” He added: “So I expect everyone who comes here to come with an open mind,” the Times of Israel reported.

Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that “When President Trump endorsed Bibi Netanyahu, the whole tide turned.” In an Axios interview he said he had not thought about backing a Netanyahu-led unity government but “I will take a look,” the Times of Israel reported. A White House official called reports of a preferred coalition “false and premature.”

Netanyahu, for his part, told Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich: “We are together and we are staying together,” according to the Times of Israel live blog. In a video on X, addressed to Trump, he said: “Donald, we have a job to finish … and we’ll finish it together,” referring to Iran.

Netanyahu’s government stays in office as a caretaker until a new one is sworn in, which limits what it can do. Our earlier piece on the caretaker question sets out what each side said about it.