Unclear Israeli election results disappoint anti-Netanyahu Left

Robin Arnfield reports that while Netanyahu may be able to cling to power through partnerships with the far-right, the significant Arab vote will profoundly change the nature of Israeli politics.

Israelis, diaspora Jews and Palestinians expressed disappointment about the initial result of Israel’s first general election since Hamas’ massacre of Israeli civilians on 7 October 2023, which triggered Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

With most votes now counted, neither Binyamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party nor his opponent Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar had won a majority. The election saw record voting numbers and a particularly high participation by Arabs voting for Arab Israeli parties.

To form a majority government, 61 Knesset seats are required, which leaves Eisenkot and his Jewish coalition allies with the choice of forming an alliance with Arab Israeli parties expected to win a record 16-19 seats, or giving Netanyahu the opportunity to hold a new election or form a unity government. Consequently, Israel is expected to face weeks and possibly months of uncertainty while Netanyahu tries to cling to power and backroom dealing between the parties takes place.

There are concerns that Israeli president Isaac Herzog may exercise his constitutional powers and get Netanyahu and Eisenkot to form a unity government.

“The depth of sadness and despair I heard from Israeli friends is significant,” said Bashar Al Shawwa, a diaspora Palestinian. “They believed the election would help reunite Israeli society around the principles of democracy and improve Israel’s image and reputation globally at a time when anti-Israel sentiment worldwide has reached unprecedented levels. Instead, the results show that the Israeli public continues to elect a racist, right-wing and corrupt leader.”

Since Israel was founded in 1948, no single party has ever held an outright majority, resulting in a series of coalition governments.

Netanyahu’s Likud party remains the largest party in the 120-seat parliament, the Knesset, with an estimated 26 seats. His right-wing coalition is expected to win just 53 seats, but, while the opposing parties have 67 seats, they are divided by ideological and ethnic differences. Eisenkot’s party, which opposes a two-state solution, won 21 seats, while the centre-left Democrats, a partner in Eisenkot’s Change coalition, won eight seats. The Jewish opposition parties have an estimated total of 48 seats, and to form a majority, would need to ally with the two Arab parties, Raam and the Joint List.

Yair Golan, the Democrats’ leader, called on Eisenkot to negotiate with the Palestinian parties, writing on X that “we have no future here if we don’t stop being afraid. And if we don’t put an end to racism. We can no longer accept Netanyahu’s racist distinction between Jewish and Arab votes. Anyone who tries to erase the votes of Arab citizens is surrendering to Netanyahu and giving up on Israel.”

The rise of the Arab Israeli parties will have a major effect on Israeli politics, forcing the Jewish opposition to make an existential choice – ally with the Arab parties or allow Netanyahu to continue in power with his far-right allies.

Dahlia Scheindlin, a Tel Aviv-based political analyst and author of The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel, wrote in The Guardian  that initial exit polls gave the opposition hope, but then reality dawned. “With most votes going to right-wing parties, the prospects for the left and centre now look bleak…. for roughly 20% of all Israelis who call themselves left-wing, who dream of a country that no longer lords it over Palestinians and still dares to hope one day for peace, there is little horizon for hope.”

In July, Israeli Jewish and Arab peace and justice activists united to form a new political party (Chartist 21/9/26), the Place for Us All, in a bid to stop the war in Gaza and achieve peace and equality for Arabs and Jews. However, the party withdrew from the election so as not to split the left-wing vote and dedicated its efforts to increasing voter turnout among Arab and Jewish communities. Its efforts to motivate Arab voters seem to have succeeded. A Place for Us All was founded by Rula Daood and Alon-Lee Green, co-leaders of the Israeli-Palestinian pro-peace and justice organisation Standing Together.

The day after the 27 October election, Netanyahu claimed that the Arabs had “stolen” the election without providing any proof. Israel’s elections committee had tried to ban Arab Israeli parties before the election, but this attempt was rejected by Israel’s supreme court. President Herzog rebuked Netanyahu, commenting that “even at a moment like this, we must avoid tarnishing an entire community that sought to exercise its right to vote and take an active part in democracy.”

Separately, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, said he hoped the Israeli election would lead to new peace negotiations. “For many years now, we’ve been extending a hand to the Israeli side in order to achieve peace with them, so that Israel and Palestine may live in security, stability and peace,” Abbas told Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides in a meeting between the two leaders in Cyprus.

Al Shawwa said the Israeli public had huge hopes that this election would help to clean the Israeli reputation but unfortunately it didn’t. “The Israeli public needs a huge effort around changing values and identity,” he said. “Even Eisinkot isn’t a great representation of democracy, as he still clearly stands for Jewish supremacy and not including Palestinian Israelis in the political structure. The only good thing about Eisinkot is that he wants to stop Bibi, and would remove Ben Ghafir and Smotrich from office, so less of my people will be killed and tortured. But there is no hope for justice, dignity and equality for my people in the near future.”

“If the Palestinian lists get 18+ seats, the coming Israeli government needs to answer the question: ‘is Israel a state for Jews only or a state for all its citizens?’” said Al Shawwa. “The newly-formed government might manage to avoid answering this question at the moment, but it will remain there waiting for an answer forever, because the Palestinian citizens of Israel have proved they are part of the State, and the issue isn’t about how many seats they have in the Knesset; it’s about the Israeli mentality of rejecting the recognition of the Palestinian Israelis as citizens with equal rights.

Daphne Kedem, an Israeli-Canadian supporter of Israeli-Palestinian partnership, said she travelled to Israel specifically to exercise her democratic right to vote. “I believe that democracy requires more than words,” she said. “It requires active participation, accountability, and a genuine commitment to equality and justice for all.

“For me, the foundation of a truly democratic society is the principle that everyone deserves equal rights, freedom, dignity, and an equal voice, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Jewish and Palestinian self-determination must be equally respected. Neither people’s freedom should come at the expense of the other people’s, and neither should be expected to live under the domination of the other.”

Kedem said this requires confronting the realities of occupation, discrimination, settlement expansion, and the denial of Palestinian rights. “A commitment to democracy cannot be selective; it must extend beyond elections and apply to the daily lives and fundamental rights of all people,” she said. “Ultimately, I believe in a future in which both peoples can live in freedom, security, and dignity, with equal rights and the ability to determine their own future. Democracy must mean equality for everyone, not freedom and self-determination for one people at the expense of another.”