Benjamin Netanyahu looked set to remain Israel’s caretaker prime minister after unexpectedly strong backing among Jewish voters left his opponents little apparent prospect of unseating him, despite his right-wing bloc losing its parliamentary majority.
With nearly 86 per cent of votes tallied yesterday, Israel’s three main broadcasters projected Netanyahu’s bloc of right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties would win 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, well ahead of the 48 for rival Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition bloc.
Parties representing Arab Israelis were projected to win an unprecedented 19 seats, leaving Eisenkot little realistic path to power without their broad backing, which many Jewish political leaders reject.
The results could still change as counting continued, but Eisenkot’s bloc of anti-Netanyahu parties, ranging from the centre-left to the hard right, had fallen short of pre-election polls that forecast a tight race.
Netanyahu would remain caretaker prime minister during any coalition negotiations and potentially until another election next year. While a caretaker government faces some constraints, experts say it retains powers, including over the war with Iran.
Guy Lurie, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, said a caretaker government formally had the same powers as a regular government, but also ‘a duty of restraint’ and less discretion in some areas.
Netanyahu, addressing his Likud party’s faithful called for the formation of ‘a strong, right-wing national government.’
Israel’s currency, stocks and bonds came under pressure as initial election results showed Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc performing better-than-expected but falling short of a parliamentary majority.
The shekel weakened more than 2 per cent to 3.1208 to the dollar, on course for its worst day since the aftermath of the October 2023 Hamas attacks and erasing Tuesday’s gains, when high voter turnout had raised expectations of a change in government.
Tel Aviv’s key benchmark stock index was down 2.5pc, its worst performance in more than four months.
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