Results are still pouring in from Israel’s election yet it remains unclear whether Gadi Eisenkot or Benjamin Netanyahu will lead the nation.
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Eisenkot → pour → nation
Israel's Central Elections Committee is continuing to tally votes, with expectations that definitive results won’t be drawn up until Thursday.
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results → continue → Thursday
With 66 per cent of the votes tallied, neither side appears on track to win an outright majority in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
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side → tally → Knesset
As exit polls came in, Netanyahu’s bloc was projected by all major news outlets to receive 51 seats - but in order to secure a majority and form a government in Israel, parties need at least 61 seats.
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parties → come → seats
If projections hold, Netanyahu's right-wing bloc, which at its height held 68 seats, would fall short of the 61 needed to govern, leaving him with no clear path to forming a government.
Coalitions are a common outcome for Israeli elections with no single party having ever won an outright majority.
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party → hold → majority
Negotiations on forming a government can take weeks, with every Knesset seat counting.
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seat → form → weeks
Small parties can become kingmakers as part of this system and key leaders often form blocs.
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leaders → become → blocs
Netanyahu’s bloc is made up of his own party, Likud, Ben-Gvir’s party Jewish Power, Smotrich’s party Religions Zionism, as well as UTJ, SHAS and People of Israel.
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bloc → make → Israel
Eisenkot’s bloc is made up of Yashar, his own party, liberal Zionist parties Together and The Democrats, and right wing party Israel Our Home.
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bloc → make → Yashar
Arab parties Ra’am and Joint List are unaligned with either bloc but currently sit on 19 seats altogether.
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parties → sit → seats
Meanwhile another unaffiliated party, the Reservists, has not even crossed the 3.25 per cent threshold required to make it in the Knesset.
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party → cross → Knesset
Netanyahu's bloc has ruled out forming a government with Arab parties, which themselves campaigned on a platform of bringing down the prime minister and his far-right allies.
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which → rule → minister
Eisenkot, the leader of the Yashar party and a former military chief, has all but ruled out forming a government with Arab parties, complicating his path to power.
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Eisenkot → rule → power
Far-right religious parties led by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich were projected to take a combined 13 seats within Netanyahu's bloc – with no major gains for either of them.
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parties → lead → them
While the projected results may represent a setback for Netanyahu and his nationalist-religious coalition, a deadlock could work in his favour, leaving the 77-year-old in office as a caretaker prime minister during what are likely to be prolonged coalition negotiations or even until another election can be held.
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election → project → minister
Eisenkot, 66, remains in the way of Netanyahu’s ticket back into government as the strongest challenger to the right wing government.
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Eisenkot → remain → government
After entering politics four years ago and joining Netanyahu's war cabinet after the 2023 Hamas attack, he quit eight months later and criticised the prime minister’s leadership.
Having lost a son and two nephews in the Gaza war, he has condemned Israel’s response to the war, which has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians according to Gaza’s health authorities, as a failure because Hamas remains in charge.
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Hamas → enter → charge
The headquarters of the Joint List burst into whistles and applause when exit polls were released, on a historic night for turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel.
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polls → burst → Israel
“We refuse the occupation and racism, and we will remain here,” said Faten Gattas, a candidate in the Joint List, in a speech at the alliance’s headquarters in Nazareth.
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Gattas → refuse → Nazareth
Candidates hoped high Arab turnout would allow them to play a decisive role in blocking Netanyahu's coalition from returning to power.
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them → hop → power
Official election results will be published a week after the election on 4 November.
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results → publish → November
More follows on this developing news story....
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More → follow → story
The Aporia
