Israel Final Results: 53-48-19, Probe Clouds Coalition Talks

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By TRH World Desk

Israel Election Final Results: Netanyahu 53, Opposition 48, Arab Parties 19, as Interference Probe Clouds Coalition Talks

New Delhi, October 31, 2026 — Three days after the vote, the arithmetic is settled and the politics are not. Israel’s Central Elections Committee released the final results on Friday, and they confirm what the late count had suggested. No bloc has 61 seats, and the contest has moved from the ballot box to a dispute over legitimacy.

The committee’s results give Likud 27 seats, Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar 21, B’Yachad 12 and the Joint List 11. Netanyahu’s bloc holds 53, Eisenkot’s 48, and Arab-led parties 19.

Netanyahu’s coalition parties held 68 seats in the outgoing Knesset. While Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, holds out in the office, the results go to President Isaac Herzog on November 4 after final checks, and the new Knesset is due to be sworn in on November 10.

The most explosive thread is the allegation of foreign interference in the Arab vote. Justice Noam Sohlberg, who chairs the committee, wrote to the Shin Bet that “serious suspicions” had reached him, while saying he could not verify them.

The Shin Bet said its inquiry does not “cast aspersions” on an entire population that voted lawfully. It also said the intelligence did not come from any political party, and that director David Zini had briefed Netanyahu, Eisenkot and Yair Lapid with Sohlberg’s approval. Likud says it has submitted evidence to police, the Shin Bet and the committee.

The timing has drawn Israeli scrutiny. Marc Schulman’s Tel Aviv Diary asked why the Shin Bet apparently knew days before the election yet raised the alarm afterward, and why Zini met Netanyahu before the committee chairman. These are questions from a commentator, not findings.

Netanyahu on Friday again warned against forming a coalition with Arab parties, and has called such a partnership treasonous. Eisenkot has not ruled it out under conditions, including recognising Israel as a Jewish state and Hamas as an extremist group. He dismissed the interference charge, saying he welcomed Netanyahu “finally condemning Qatari involvement.”

If talks collapse, Israel could return to the polls early next year, which Herzog and Eisenkot both want to avoid.

The vote answered who won seats. It did not answer who can govern, and the interference story gives each side a reason to harden. Netanyahu’s challenge to the result seems aimed at making an opposition deal with Arab-led parties politically costly, so the Shin Bet’s findings may matter as much as the seat count.