longer.blue

“Israel’s final election results confirm that Netanyahu’s bloc has lost its parliamentary majority, setting up weeks of tough coalition talks. Netanyahu’s bloc won 53 seats, the opposition led by Gadi Eisenkot won 48, and Arab-led parties won a historic 19, leaving no one with the 61 seats needed to govern. Netanyahu and Likud amplified unsupported claims that Arab parties “stole” the election with foreign help, and on Friday Netanyahu declared it “forbidden” to form a coalition with them. The head of the election committee said reports about a related investigation are “entirely unfounded” and that it “does not affect the final results,” and the committee called allegations of systematic fraud “baseless.” When the new Knesset is sworn in on Nov. 10, the opposition and Arab parties could team up to elect a new speaker and take control of the parliamentary agenda. If Netanyahu loses power, he would face accountability over corruption allegations and an almost certain inquiry into the security failures before Oct. 7.” from Aaron Parnas newsletter