Why Arab parties may not be the ‘kingmakers’ in this Israeli election
News Source
•Wed, 28 Oct 2026 14:30:17 +0000
📰 What Happened
Exit polls suggest Israel's Arab-led parties could win a record 17 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. The Joint List and Ra'am are both projected to gain. That would make them hard for either big bloc to ignore.
Partial results give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc 54 seats and the opposition alliance led by Gadi Eisenkot 49. Neither has a majority. With Arab party support, Eisenkot could reach 61 seats, and possibly 66, enough to replace Netanyahu. But both men have ruled out working with them.
🔍 The Backstory
Israeli politics has a long rule that Arab parties may win votes but are not asked to govern. In 2021, Ra'am broke that pattern and joined the short-lived Bennett-Lapid government. Before that, Arab-led lists backed governments from outside, including in Yitzhak Rabin's time.
Eisenkot says he would work with any party that accepts Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and backs national service for all. Ra'am's Mansour Abbas has said he is willing to join. Netanyahu called such a coalition "a shame and a disgrace". Bennett now wants only "Zionist" parties.
🎯 Why It Matters
A record Arab vote could decide who runs Israel. But if leaders refuse to work together, the result may be another election and more stalemate.
Exit polls suggest Israel's Arab-led parties could win a record 17 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. The Joint List and Ra'am are both projected to gain. That would make them hard for either big bloc to ignore.
Partial results give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc 54 seats and the opposition alliance led by Gadi Eisenkot 49. Neither has a majority. With Arab party support, Eisenkot could reach 61 seats, and possibly 66, enough to replace Netanyahu. But both men have ruled out working with them.
Israeli politics has a long rule that Arab parties may win votes but are not asked to govern. In 2021, Ra'am broke that pattern and joined the short-lived Bennett-Lapid government. Before that, Arab-led lists backed governments from outside, including in Yitzhak Rabin's time.
Eisenkot says he would work with any party that accepts Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and backs national service for all. Ra'am's Mansour Abbas has said he is willing to join. Netanyahu called such a coalition "a shame and a disgrace". Bennett now wants only "Zionist" parties.
A record Arab vote could decide who runs Israel. But if leaders refuse to work together, the result may be another election and more stalemate.