Eisenkot and Lieberman call for a change of government
Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of Yashar! with Eisenkot, said the initial projections indicated a rejection of Netanyahu and the October 7 government.
Conditional on those figures becoming the final results, he described the outcome as a victory for Israel’s mainstream Zionist majority and pledged to act immediately to replace Netanyahu’s government with a Zionist government committed to military conscription.
Lieberman questioned whether the exit polls reflected the actual result but said: “We’ve reached a reasonably good situation.”
He called for Netanyahu to step down and urged a rebellion within Likud to remove him, adding: “If he leaves, it will be possible to rebuild the national camp.” He also joked that he had needed surgery to lengthen his fuse.
Segal assesses coalition obstacles and turnout
Commentator Segal said Netanyahu had lost his majority across the channels, while Eisenkot still lacked a stable governing coalition.
He reported that Eisenkot would speak with bloc leaders and predicted that Eisenkot would receive the mandate to form a government before approaching Likud. These were assessments, rather than confirmed coalition developments.
Segal highlighted ideological divisions among the 70 projected lawmakers outside Netanyahu’s bloc, citing six who had lost relatives to Hamas and others whom he accused of regarding Hamas as a charitable organization.
He also suggested Arab turnout may have exceeded Jewish turnout for the first time, attributing roughly four percentage points of the overall turnout increase to Arab voters.
In his assessment, which bloc mobilized the remaining increase would help determine the balance between them.
Abbas addresses the coalition arithmetic
Mansour Abbas told Yonit Levi: “With these numbers, there’s no government.” He also said: “We will turn the seats we won into a new reality in the country.”
Arab-led parties feature prominently in the election-night arithmetic, although the projections do not establish a viable coalition.
Winter pledges to continue
Winter said:
“We’re here for the long haul. The journey has only just begun.”
He also said his party had drawn votes from opposition parties and people who otherwise would not have voted.
Election allegations and reported incidents
Netanyahu alleged:
“Muslim Brotherhood supporters are raiding the polling stations and stealing the elections”
The allegation remains unsubstantiated.
Separately, a senior Likud official told Israel Hayom:
“We thank Ben Gvir for his excellent work, which led to an unprecedented surge in Arab voter turnout”
The comment attributed the surge to Ben Gvir without independently establishing that explanation.
The Joint Arab List alleged that police had seized ballot boxes in Arara in the Negev and prevented voting from continuing.
Elchanan Gruner reported that a senior fundraising official at Aid 48, described in his report as an arm of Ra’am, had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in an election-bribery scheme involving payments for votes.
The report concerns suspicions, not a finding of guilt. Violence near a polling station in Rahat was also reported.
