Israel Faces Coalition Deadlock as Absentee Ballots Are Counted
publishers 203articles 395first reported 23 Oct, 08:48 UTCdeveloping since 23 Oct · 10 editionstop 25 #3
Israel’s political parties began preparing for coalition negotiations as election officials counted absentee ballots, with partial results leaving neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc nor the opposition led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot close to a parliamentary majority.
With roughly 86% to 88% of votes counted, Israeli media projected 53 seats for Netanyahu’s Likud-led bloc and 48 for Eisenkot’s allies in the 120-seat Knesset. Arab-led parties were projected to take a combined 19 seats, potentially giving them a decisive role in forming a government. Final results were expected after about half a million ballots from military personnel, diplomats and other absentee voters were counted.
Eisenkot has left open cooperation with Arab parties under certain conditions, but several prospective partners have opposed relying on them. Netanyahu has ruled out such cooperation. Other possibilities include a Likud-Yashar unity government or another election if no candidate can assemble the 61 seats required for a majority.
Likud alleged that Arab parties benefited from fraud and foreign interference and called for investigations. The party had not publicly provided specific evidence for its broader claims, while election officials said reports of irregularities were substantially lower than in previous elections. Arab party leaders rejected the accusations as an attempt to delegitimize their gains.
The uncertainty pressured Israeli markets Wednesday. The shekel fell more than 2% against the dollar, while Tel Aviv’s benchmark stock index dropped 2.5%.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 4 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 148 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 203
- Source articles
- 395
- Given to the writer
- 8, 4 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 8
- This version written
- 148 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
- Human review
- none
WHAT THE EDITOR DID
The second model checked the writer's draft against the same sources and published it as written.
Written by a language model from the sources above, then checked by a second model that may only cut, attribute or correct. How it works →