Coalition Talks Face Stalemate as Both Blocs Fall Short of Majority
Preliminary counts show Netanyahu's alliance holding 53 seats while opposition forces gather 48, leaving neither side with the 61 needed to rule without outside support.
By Christopher Richardson ·
Israel's next government faces a difficult path to power as preliminary election results show a divided Knesset.
The Central Elections Committee released figures on Wednesday after counting nearly five million votes. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc is projected to secure 53 seats. His Likud party is expected to win 26 of those seats. United Torah Judaism, Shas, and Otzma Yehudit are each projected to take seven seats. The Religious Zionist Party is expected to hold six.
The opposition bloc is projected to win 48 seats. Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party leads the group with 21 projected seats. B'Yachad, a coalition led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, is expected to take 12 seats. Yair Golan's Democrats are projected to win eight seats, while Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu is expected to hold seven.
Arab parties are projected to command 19 seats in the new parliament. The Joint List is expected to win 12 seats, and Ra'am is projected to take seven. Neither the governing nor the opposition bloc has a clear route to the 61 seats required for a majority.
A unity government between Netanyahu and Eisenkot appears unlikely because Eisenkot has refused to serve under the current prime minister, even in a rotation. Other opposition leaders have also ruled out joining a Netanyahu-led coalition. Eisenkot has urged the leader of the largest opposition party to become the candidate for prime minister, though the bloc has not agreed on a name.
Yair Golan argued that the opposition holds a majority when Arab parties are included. He stated that the opposition reaches 65 seats, which is more than the 55 needed if the Haredi parties are excluded from the count. Golan wrote that Netanyahu lost and that the opposition has a responsibility to form a government of change.
Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen said his party was ready to help remove the current government. He described the potential alliance as a true and equal partnership. Ahmad Tibi, faction chairman of Hadash-Ta'al, told Army Radio that the opposition could form a government if it had the courage, adding that his party was extending a hand to help.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
