Could Arab Parties Decide Israel's Next Prime Minister?

All the votes are in, and nobody has a majority to form a coalition. So now it’s a race to 61 seats. 🇮🇱 The results reflect three blocs. Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc has 53 seats. Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition bloc has 48 seats. And the Arab parties have 19 seats. If Benjamin Netanyahu wants to stay in power, he’s going to need at least 8 seats from the opposition bloc. But those parties all ran on the platform of ousting Bibi. If Gadi Eisenkot wants to be prime minister, he’s going to need at least 13 seats from the Arab parties or somebody else. But some in his bloc said they’re not going to sit with any Arab parties. So who are the Arab parties? There are two main Arab parties. Ra’am is an Islamist party led by Mansour Abbas, and they were part of the government in 2021 with Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid as prime ministers. The other is the Joint List, which runs on an anti-Zionist platform. They’ve never joined an Israeli government. Arab citizens are about one-fifth of the Israeli population, and they came out to vote in record numbers. So right now, they could actually decide who’s going to be Israel’s next prime minister. Anything can happen. Stay tuned.