Occupied al-Quds — As the vote count for the 26th Knesset elections nears completion, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has secured its 27th seat, though the Zionist political landscape remains deeply fractured with no clear path to a governing majority.
According to the Israeli election committee, more than 97 percent of the votes have been tallied without altering the overall distribution between political blocs. Likud gained an additional seat at the expense of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which dropped to six seats. Overall, the right-wing bloc led by the Israeli occupation Prime Minister Netanyahu has secured 53 seats, while the Zionist opposition bloc, led by former general Gadi Eisenkot, holds 48 seats in the 120-seat parliament.
Meanwhile, Palestinian parties inside the occupied territories—namely the Joint List and Raam—have collectively won 19 seats. Neither the Netanyahu nor the Eisenkot bloc has reached the 61-seat threshold required to form a government, and both have explicitly ruled out forming coalitions with non-Zionist Palestinian parties.
Refusing to accept the deadlocked outcome, Netanyahu has resorted to allegations of widespread electoral fraud. Following Tuesday’s vote, he accused Turkiye and Qatar of bribing voters to support Palestinian-Israeli parties. In inflammatory remarks, Netanyahu framed the alleged interference as an “attack on democracy” aimed at the “Islamisation of Israel,” the overthrow of right-wing rule, and the defeat of the Israeli military in all arenas—primarily against Iran.
Israel’s top election official swiftly pushed back against the accusations. Dean Livne, acting director general of Israel’s Central Elections Committee (CEC), stated on Thursday that the elections were “conducted lawfully.” In a letter to Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak, Livne emphasised that the integrity of polling stations was rigorously safeguarded, declaring there is “no basis for allegations of systematic violations.”
Despite Livne dismissing the systematic fraud claims as baseless, CEC Chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg has reportedly called for Israel’s internal intelligence service, the Shin Bet, to investigate the allegations of foreign funding. Sohlberg cited “serious suspicions” of improper influence by foreign entities acting against Zionist interests, directing the intelligence agency to review classified information regarding the matter.
Reference: The Cradle | Al-Mayadeen