Israeli Election Results: Netanyahu and Opposition Leader Both Declare Victory as Perplexing Deadlock Emerges
The dust is nowhere near settling after Israel’s elections produced no clear winner.
No single party received more seats in the Knesset than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, which had 27 seats in the 120-seat legislature, according to The Times of Israel.
Because Israel’s political scene is a welter of small parties, outright party majorities are rare, and the nation is generally governed through a coalition of parties.
The current coalition had 54 seats, the Yashar Party and its likely coalition partners had 49 seats, and various Arab parties had 17 seats, according to The Times of Israel.
POLITICAL STALEMATE IN ISRAEL: With over 70% of the vote tallied, neither Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc nor Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition bloc has secured the 61-seat majority required to govern.
Whoever receives the mandate from President Isaac Herzog will face an uphill climb to build a coalition—leaving a unity government, negotiations with Arab parties, or new elections on the table. @TreyYingst
— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) October 28, 2026
Results are unofficial. Paper ballots from Israel’s troops have yet to be counted, which means a final verdict from the electorate is likely many days away.
Netanyahu and Yashar Party leader Gadi Eisenkot each declared victory and said they would establish a coalition government.
One complication in that process is that multiple minor parties which would be members of either coalition have said they will not partner with Arab parties, which are the largest non-affiliated bloc.
Eisenkot said the results prove Netanyahu is on his way out.
“These are still exit poll results, and we must wait for the final count,” Eisenkot said after the polls closed. “But it is already clear that tonight Netanyahu faces a larger and stronger Zionist, responsible majority.”
“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,” he said.
“We simply must not endanger Israel by forming a government that relies on anti-Zionist Arab parties. Parties that oppose our very existence.” Benjamin Netanyahu addresses Likud supporters in Jerusalem after exit polls show his party emerging as Israel’s largest, but with no clear winner in the election.
Video: i24— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) October 28, 2026
Netanyahu spoke of unfinished business with Iran, according to The Times of Israel.
“As long as that fanatical regime exists, a regime that has inscribed on its banner, that has defined the very purpose of its existence as the destruction of ours, it will try again to annihilate us. And it is within our power, together with our wonderful friend President Trump, to remove this threat once and for all,” he said.
“Two things have become clear here. The first is unequivocal: Likud is the largest party in Israel,” he said, responding to critics who predicted the election would be the end of Netanyahu.
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“And the second thing that has become clear… is that the right-wing bloc has a clear, decisive majority among the Zionist public, among the Jewish public and all those who support the Jewish state. That is what has become clear. A decisive majority,” he said.
“And therefore I said, and I say again, that we must form a strong, national, right-wing government. That is what must be done.”
A unity government is unlikely, according to The Jerusalem Post, because Eisenkot has said he will not serve under Netanyahu, a position many of the parties in his coalition have also taken.
If no coalition emerges that is able to achieve a majority, another election could be held.
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