Netanyahu lives another day...
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed to defy the polls once again. With votes still being counted in Israel, it appears that both his Likud party and his broader right-wing coalition will emerge as the largest. But neither he nor his chief opponent, Gadi Eisenkot, will have a sufficient number of votes to give them a clear path to forming a majority government.
Under Israel’s complicated multi-party parliamentary system, it takes a coalition of 61 seats to put together a government in the 120-seat Knesset. With about 85 percent of the vote in, Netanyahu’s Likud was at 27 seats and his coalition was at 54 seats, while Eisenkot’s newly formed Yashar party was at 22 seats and his broader anti-Bibi coalition had slipped to just 49.
A surge in turnout among Arab voters led to a significant haul for the Arab parties, which look like they’ll end up controlling around 17 seats. In theory, Eisenkot could gain a majority by allying with one of the Arab parties, or he could join a unity government with Netanyahu at the helm. But while campaigning, he ruled out serving under Netanyahu or partnering with the Arab parties given that their leaders have been unwilling to identify Hamas as a terrorist organization.