Israel News for 10-28-2026

News Update

With nearly 80% of the votes counted, here are the election results (which could still change, albeit slightly):

Likud (Netanyahu) – 27

Yashar  (Eisenkot) – 22

Beyachad (Bennett) – 12

Joint List (Arab) – 11

The Democrats – 8

United Torah Judaism – 7

Shas – 7

Yisrael Beiteinu – 7

Otzma Yehudit (Ben Gvir) – 7

Religious Zionism (Smotrich) – 6

Ra’am (Arab) – 6

At this point, the Netanyahu block would appear to control 54 seats, and the opposition 49.

The ballots of the soldiers and other special voters have not yet been counted, but there are 600,000 of them, which could have a material effect on the breakdown of seats. These ballots have traditionally been overwhelmingly skewed to the Right and could potentially boost Netanyahu’s block enough to cross the 61 seat threshold required to form a government.

In the event that a government cannot be formed, the current government will continue until new elections are held in a few months. Of course, a unity government between the 3 largest parties would be an ideal outcome, but the opposition parties have refused to sit in a Netanyahu led government, and it’s highly unlikely (impossible?) that Netanyahu will give up the premiership.

So now we wait until all the votes have been counted.