Netanyahu and Eisenkot blocs both claim victory

(TIMES OF ISRAEL) An updated Channel 12 exit poll on Wednesday morning Australia time gave the pro-Netanyahu bloc 52 seats and the anti-Netanyahu bloc 49 in Israel’s elections, compared with 50 and 52 in a previous poll, while the predominantly Arab Joint List and Ra’am parties held the other 19 seats.

Addressing Likud election headquarters in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu detailed Israel’s accomplishments in the wars since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terror onslaught in his post-election speech.

“Iran is weaker than ever, Israel is stronger than ever,” he said, saying that along with US President Donald Trump, Israel would end the Iranian threat once and for all.

Qualifying that “we are still waiting for the true results,” he said “the Likud is the biggest party in Israel” to cheers, before taking aim at news outlets that predicted the party would perform poorly.

“The right-wing bloc has a decisive majority,” he said.

At press time, Likud had risen to 27 seats from an earlier 24 in exit polls, while Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar was polling at 21, down from from 22.

Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid’s B’Yachad showed 12 seats, along with the Joint Arab List, the Democrats 9, Yisrael Beytenu, Shas and Ra’am 7 each, while United Torah Judaism, Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism were polling at 6 seats each.

Earlier exit polls had shown the Eisenkot-led bloc ahead, though neither bloc was close to a 61-seat majority.

At that time, Eisenkot said Israelis had voted for change and against Netanyahu’s continued rule.

“These are still exit poll results, and we must wait for the final count,” Eisenkot said at his party’s headquarters. “The public voted for change. The coalition of failure has lost the people’s trust. The Israeli public voted against Netanyahu continuing as prime minister.”

B’Yachad chair Naftali Bennett declared that Netanyahu has lost the election, hailing the projected decrease of his bloc from 68 to what then looked like 50 seats.

“The people of Israel have stood up and spoken: Netanyahu has lost and the October 7 Government is going home,” He said at his party headquarters.

He acknowledged that the final results could still change, but said opposition leaders were already working on efforts to form a government.

Former MK Yoav Segalovitz, who mounted an unprecedented run as no. 2 in traditionalist Arab party Ra’am, said “there’s no alternative” to opposition leaders approaching his party to join a government.

“We want to be part of the coalition,” he said, even if leaders of the Zionist opposition “currently say out loud” that they’re unwilling to rely on Arab support. “My intention is to break the lines between Arabs and Jews.”

Voter turnout was historically high, with over 5.4 million Israelis across the country casting ballots as of 8pm, according to the Central Elections Committee (CEC). It reported a 74.3 per cent turnout, the highest since 1988 at that hour and near the all-time record since hourly figures started being recorded in 1973, as the country held its first election after three traumatic years of war and turmoil.

Turnout was up from 66.3 per cent at the same time in the 2022 election, the CEC said.

Netanyahu appealed to right-wing voters to “race to the polls,” as he warned of high voter turnout in Arab and left-wing areas. Dusting off a controversial playbook from previous elections, Netanyahu claimed that “they are trying to steal the election from us,” pushing unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, especially in the Arab sector.

Netanyahu was not the only party leader to allege fraud or issue complaints to the CEC, as Eisenkot’s Yashar, Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad, Ofer Winter’s People of Israel, Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu, Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am, and Yoaz Hendel’s Reservists-Economic party all reported alleged irregularities, including missing or defaced ballot slips and other suspected attempts to interfere with voting.

However, the CEC said there was no evidence of systematic tampering with ballot slips, adding that individual reports were being addressed immediately.

The Israel Police on Tuesday morning said three operatives for Ra’am had been arrested on suspicion of bribing voters.

A man was also arrested in Tel Aviv after he apparently tried to stab Democrats party chief Yair Golan in Tel Aviv’s Mesila Park, the party said. Police confirmed that officers had arrested a suspect who approached Golan in possession of a knife.

With Likud projected to be the largest party and the two main blocs neck-and-neck in two of the three main exit polls, both Netanyahu and Eisenkot will likely appeal to President Isaac Herzog for the chance to form a government. The president is required to task the candidate seen to have the best chance.

If neither is able to form a coalition, a repeat election would be called, with Netanyahu remaining as caretaker prime minister. The country endured a similar situation from 2019 to 2022, when it held five votes, with Netanyahu as prime minister for much of that time.