Joint statement addresses suspected foreign funding
Central Elections Committee chairman Noam Sohlberg said the election results would stand “despite serious suspicions of foreign funding aimed at influencing the vote”.
In a joint statement with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief David Zini, Sohlberg said the allegations would not invalidate the results even if confirmed.
“The scandal is serious, but the overall election results will not be called into question.”
A court extended one suspect’s detention by three days and released a second under restrictive conditions. It ordered a third suspect released to house arrest, but police requested a stay of that decision’s implementation.
Segal questions whether individual seats could be affected
Amit Segal argued that the joint statement left an essential question unanswered: whether the suspected interference could affect even one parliamentary seat, despite assurances about the overall results.
He assessed that a team of legal experts had carefully scrutinized every word, yet said explanations were urgently needed about the nature and, above all, the scope of the suspicions. A single seat, he noted, can determine political outcomes and change which governments are possible.
Segal cited roughly 4,000 votes that prevented Ra’am’s eighth seat from becoming Shas’s seventh. He asked whether the scale of the suspected affair involved more or fewer than 4,000 votes.
According to Segal, Sohlberg, Zini and Baharav-Miara met for six hours. Zini complained that the Shin Bet’s legal adviser had prevented him from fully investigating the suspicions. Segal directed his question about the extent of the suspected vote fraud specifically to Sohlberg.
Segal identifies Bennett as the pivotal coalition player
Segal argued that Naftali Bennett, currently in Ra’anana, holds the key to coalition negotiations. He contrasted that assessment with attention focused on Eisenkot as the likely candidate to form the next government, Netanyahu’s continuing influence, Lieberman’s uncertain position, Presidents Herzog and Trump as possible deadlock-breakers, and Abbas and Goldknopf as potential kingmakers.
He considered the focus on Abbas and Goldknopf reasonable, but placed Bennett at the center of his analysis.
In Segal’s assessment, Bennett, chairman of Beyachad, and Eisenkot, chairman of Yashar, are pivotal to virtually any possible government. Eisenkot would not want to join a government with Netanyahu without Bennett, and could not enter a government involving the ultra-Orthodox and/or Arab parties without him.
Their incentives differ, Segal argued. Eisenkot could become prime minister in a minority coalition or, at minimum, an equal partner in a unity government.
Bennett would face substantial criticism and electoral damage for breaking campaign promises, while receiving a very senior ministerial position rather than returning to the premiership.
According to Segal, Beyachad won 12 seats, divided between seven representatives for Bennett and five for Lapid. He considered it difficult to envision all 12 entering a government together.
