Netanyahu bloc trails at 56 seats as right wing questions Arab turnout

With approximately 55 percent of ballots counted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s alliance of right-wing and religious parties was projected to secure 56 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. This tally leaves the governing bloc five seats short of the 61 required to form a government, placing Arab-led parties in a decisive position to influence the final coalition.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich addressed supporters at his party’s headquarters in Jerusalem early Wednesday. He dismissed the opposition’s preliminary gains and vowed to protect the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Smotrich declared that Jewish settlements would be established in Gaza, a territory where Israel dismantled its settlements in 2005. He characterized his party’s settlement policies as a revolution that opponents would not reverse.

Allegations of voter irregularities dominated the right-wing discourse during Tuesday’s election. Netanyahu warned that Arab voters were rushing to polling stations and suggested an opposition victory would threaten the Jewish character of the state. He accused three senior figures from the Ra’am party of attempting to steal the election. Police confirmed they arrested three individuals on suspicion of voter bribery, but no evidence linked the arrests to senior Ra’am leadership.

Transportation Minister Miri Regev amplified these claims on social media. She posted that the opposition was attempting to steal the elections and the country, framing the contest as a binary choice between the right and Palestine. Earlier in the day, Smotrich also claimed unusually high turnout in Arab communities and left-wing areas without providing specific data to support the assertion.

Political analyst Dov Waxman noted that Netanyahu is likely to continue framing a coalition with Arab parties as illegitimate in the coming days. Arab political leaders have already condemned the prime minister’s election-day remarks as racist and inflammatory. The inconclusive result has intensified the strategic importance of the Ra’am party in the post-election negotiations.

Mansour Abbas, the leader of Ra’am, stated that he had been contacted by both Netanyahu’s Likud party and the opposition camp led by Gadi Eisenkot. Eisenkot, a former military chief who heads the Yashar party, is positioning his coalition as the alternative to the current government. The final seat counts will determine whether either camp can form a stable government or if the parties must engage in complex coalition-building talks.