Likud Leads the Count, but Neither Bloc Reaches 61 Seats
With about 55% of votes counted this morning, Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc stood at 56 seats against 49 for Gadi Eisenkot’s alliance — both short of the 61 needed in the 120-seat Knesset. Exit polls make Likud the largest party, on 27 seats to Yashar’s 21, while Arab-led parties are projected to win a record combined 19 on turnout above 77%.
The count is early and skewed towards right-wing areas, and many absentee ballots, mostly soldiers’, are yet to be counted; a clear result may take a day or two, and tallies differ between outlets as it moves. Both men claimed the night. “We must form a strong, national, right-wing government,” Netanyahu said, having warned followers all day about high Arab turnout. “The coalition of failure has lost the people’s trust,” Eisenkot replied. That leaves the Arab parties, which most Jewish opposition parties pledged not to work with, as possible kingmakers. Ra’am’s Mansour Abbas put it bluntly: “With the numbers we have now, there is no government.” Coalition-building could take weeks or months.