At the Israeli elections, neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot secured a majority of seats. The key to forming a new government could lie with the Arab parties.
No party secured the majority of 61 seats in the Israeli elections. In the day after the elections, which recorded record turnout, the count continues at a slow pace, but with approximately two thirds of ballots counted it is already clear that there is no clear winner.
Likud, the party of incumbent prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, received the most votes, but adding the 27 seats attributed to it to those of the other far-right parties in the current governing coalition still leaves it below the minimum threshold. On the opposition side, the right-wing coalition led by former general Gadi Eisenkot and his party Yashar is tracking even lower, at around 48 seats. The true surprise of the elections is, however, the success of the Arab parties — namely Ra'am (more conservative) and the Joint List (more progressive) — which together secured 16 seats. They could prove decisive in forming an anti-Netanyahu government led by Eisenkot.
Where things stand right now, with just over 66% of the votes counted pic.twitter.com/EiIRY2wLBe
— Israel Elects (@israel_elects) October 28, 2026
On the night between 27 and 28 October, after the first results from the Israeli election count began to emerge, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intention to form "a strong national right-wing government". His main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, instead stated that "the Israeli people voted against Netanyahu's mandate as prime minister of Israel" and that "a worthy leader would have accepted the people's rejection and announced his withdrawal from politics today." These contrasting statements give a clear sense of the climate of uncertainty that has emerged from the Israeli vote — one that brought more people to the polls than at any time in the past thirty years. Turnout in the first elections since Hamas's attacks of 7 October 2023 stood at 77.7 per cent, a predictable result given that for months virtually every party had presented the vote as decisive for the country's future.
On one side stands Likud, Benjamin Netanyahu's party. Netanyahu has served as Israel's prime minister for a total of approximately 16 years and has governed continuously since 2009, apart from the brief interlude of the Bennett-Lapid government between 2021 and 2022. Netanyahu, whose tenure has been marked by a string of controversies — including a trial on corruption charges and accusations of having ignored warnings about the 7 October attack — stood in these elections at the head of the far-right coalition with which he has governed until now, composed among others of the Otzma Yehudit party of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and the Religious Zionism party of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
On the other side stands Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party. Eisenkot is a former general who in recent years has emerged as one of Netanyahu's foremost opponents. He has repeatedly accused Netanyahu of underestimating the Hamas threat, called for the establishment of a commission of inquiry into the events, and his platform also addresses mandatory military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews and criticises the last government's handling of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The coalition led by Eisenkot — right-wing in orientation but more moderate than Netanyahu's, and including among others the Together party of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid — secured 48 seats. This means that both the Netanyahu-led coalition and the Eisenkot-led coalition fell short of the 61-seat threshold, the majority required in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, to be able to govern.
During the election campaign, Gadi Eisenkot had envisaged a Zionist majority government, rejecting support from the Arab parties — those representing the Palestinian minority. But the success of the Arab parties at the polls could reshape the picture, given that they are precisely the key to forming an anti-Netanyahu government.
Two Arab lists stood in the 27 October vote. On one side, the party Ra'am, more conservative in outlook and the party that in 2021 became part of the short-lived government led by Bennett and Lapid. On the other, the Joint List, of which Ra'am was a member until 2021, which takes more progressive positions as it is composed of secular parties and also includes communists. Historically, Israel's Arab population has recorded very low electoral participation rates, owing both to a boycott of the country's institutions and to distrust of those called upon to represent them. This time, however, things played out differently: issues such as rampant crime and security concerns within Arab neighbourhoods were central to the election campaign, and the urgency of improving living conditions — which also hinges on bringing the Netanyahu era to an end — convinced many people to go to the polls.
During the campaign, the Arab parties signalled their openness to joining a governing coalition alongside Eisenkot, who at the time declined. Now, however, the situation could change: Ra'am and the Joint List together secured a record result of 18 seats, which combined with the 47 seats of Eisenkot's centre-right coalition would be enough to surpass the 61-seat majority required in the Knesset. Yair Golan, the more moderate voice within Eisenkot's coalition, has already indicated openness to a deal, stressing the need to prevent a new Netanyahu government from being formed.
In the coming hours the count will continue, and once the final results are in it will fall to President Isaac Herzog to launch consultations by tasking a prime minister with forming a government. It is possible that he will begin with Benjamin Netanyahu, given that his Likud party received the most votes — unless a solid majority emerging from an agreement between Eisenkot and the Arab parties should take shape first, which could persuade the president to entrust the former general directly with the task of forming the new Israeli executive.