What’s next as Netanyahu’s party claims Israeli elections were stolen?

Tel Aviv — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party claimed Thursday that Israeli elections earlier this week were stolen by Arab-majority parties, aided by foreign funding that amounted to vote buying, final results showed. Netanyahu’s bloc lost its majority in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.

from Israel Arab-majority parties recorded their highest participation record in Tuesday’s elections, winning an unprecedented 19 of the Knesset’s 120 seats. Their success is one of the main reasons why Netanyahu’s bloc lost its majority and now cannot form a new government.

Final election results show that the far-right bloc’s share of Knesset seats fell from 68 to 53.

Israel’s Arab minority, also known as Palestinian citizens of Israel, makes up approximately 20% of the country’s population.

“The Israeli elections were stolen,” Netanyahu’s Likud party said in a statement Thursday, claiming “an attack on democracy aimed at leading to a foreign takeover of the Knesset, the Islamization of Israel and the overthrow of the right-wing government to bring about the withdrawal and defeat of the IDF (the Israeli army) on all fronts, first and foremost Iran.”

The four parties that make up the main bloc opposing Netanyahu won 48 seats, so they would need the support of Arab parties to attempt to form a coalition government, assuming none of the lawmakers currently align with Netanyahu’s default bloc.

The leaders of Israel’s two largest Arab parties, which collectively won 19 seats, said they would be willing to help the main opposition bloc oust Netanyahu from power.

Most of the Jewish-led parties that oppose Netanyahu vowed before the election not to rely on support from Arab parties to form a government, leaving a question mark over whether they would now be willing to cooperate to build a coalition to oust the outgoing prime minister.

“Allegations of systematic compromise are unfounded”

The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, said it had opened an investigation into possible foreign influence in the elections, but the scope of that investigation was not specified.

“An investigation of this type is also focused and limited, and does not cast aspersions or blame on an entire sector that went to vote democratically and legally,” the agency said in a statement Thursday.

Acting Director General of the Central Election Commission Din Livne said in a letter to a commission member on Thursday that “allegations of systematic undermining of election integrity have no basis.”

Israeli media reported that one of the allegations the Shin Bet investigation would examine was whether Qatar sent money to Arab parties in order to increase turnout among Israeli Arab voters.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry denied the accusation.

“We categorically deny allegations that Qatar interfered in Israeli elections or financed any activity intended to influence their outcome,” ministry spokesperson Majid Al-Ansari said. “Qatar should not be used as a scapegoat for the political failures of some Israeli politicians.”

“An inappropriate influence operation?”

Even though the vote count is now officially complete, the election results still need to be certified and sent to President Issac Herzog before a new parliament can be sworn in and the process of forming a new government can begin.

Gadi Eisenkot, head of the centrist Yashar party and the leading candidate to replace Netanyahu as prime minister, said he feared Netanyahu could use the allegation of a stolen election to justify delaying or disqualifying the results.

“Netanyahu, who has become accustomed to confronting reality through lies, consciousness engineering and the spread of chaos, is carrying out alongside his partners an operation of inappropriate influence on Israeli public opinion aimed at delaying the publication of election results on time and creating a fictitious delegitimization of the activity of the 26th Knesset,” Eisenkot said in a social media post on Thursday.

Once the new Knesset is sworn in – even without a new government being decided – Eisenkot’s bloc, along with Arab parties, could begin passing laws given that they will control the majority in parliament.

Netanyahu, whose president Trump enthusiastically approvedwill retain his post as interim prime minister until a new government is formed. If the parties fail to negotiate to form a new coalition government, then the country will have to hold new elections and Netanyahu will remain caretaker prime minister.