Netanyahu and Eisenkot Both Claim Right to Lead Israel as Vote Count Shows Deadlock

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and challenger Gadi Eisenkot each laid out a claim to lead Israel after Tuesday's election, even as early counting pointed to a deadlock. Netanyahu called for a right-wing government, while Eisenkot said voters had turned away from the longtime leader. Neither declared victory.

Israel's Central Elections Committee was counting ballots on Wednesday, and definitive results are likely to take until Thursday. This is the first national vote since the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023. With about 48.4 per cent of votes tallied, Israeli media reported that Netanyahu's bloc was projected to win 55 seats and Eisenkot's bloc 50, with 15 seats going to Arab parties. The distribution is expected to shift as more votes are counted.

Both camps would fall short of the 61 seats required for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. The projections may be a setback for Netanyahu and his nationalist-religious coalition, whose bloc once held 68 seats. Yet a stalemate could still help the 77-year-old, since he would stay on as caretaker prime minister through what could be lengthy coalition talks or until a new election is held.

Paths to a majority are complicated for both men. Netanyahu's bloc has ruled out a government with Arab parties, which campaigned on bringing down the prime minister and his far-right allies. Eisenkot, who leads the Yashar party and is a former military chief, has all but ruled out including Arab parties as well. The 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.

Speaking to supporters at Likud headquarters in Jerusalem after 3 a.m. local time, Netanyahu urged the creation of "a strong, right-wing national government." He pointed to Israel's military successes and raised the possibility of renewed joint action with U.S. President Donald Trump against Iran. "Israel faces a singular historical opportunity, together with our partner President Trump, to remove the existential threat of Iran once and for all," he said.

Trump, who endorsed Netanyahu, commented after a campaign trip to Texas. He said the race was "pretty close" and suggested the endorsement had helped. He added that Netanyahu "might be winning or tie," calling a tie "sort of considered a win in that case because it's a big chess man match."

Eisenkot said the public had voted against Netanyahu remaining in office and urged him to retire from politics. "Netanyahu is a caretaker prime minister, without a mandate or the people's trust," he said. He also called on the security establishment to "stand firm" against any effort to put political interests ahead of Israel's security.

Turnout reached 77.7 per cent, according to the Central Elections Committee. That is the highest in more than two decades and about seven percentage points above 2022. Because Israel's fragmented system gives smaller parties potential kingmaker roles, past coalition talks have lasted weeks or months. If neither side can form a government, another election may be needed, an outcome Eisenkot opposed given the strong turnout.

Eisenkot, 66, lost a son and two nephews in the Gaza war and has emerged as Netanyahu's strongest challenger. He entered politics only four years ago and joined Netanyahu's war cabinet after the 2023 attack, then quit eight months later, criticizing the prime minister's leadership. He presents himself as a centrist at home but keeps a hawkish security stance: he opposes Palestinian statehood and says Hamas' military wing must be destroyed or dismantled. He argues Israel's response, a war that has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians according to Gaza health authorities, failed because Hamas remains in charge.

Voters weighed the trauma of Israel's deadliest day, when Hamas killed 1,200 people according to Israeli government tallies and took 251 hostage, as well as the wars with Hezbollah in Lebanon and with Iran that followed. Netanyahu has faced criticism for the country's biggest security failure, but he argues he made Israel and the world safer by killing top leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.