News Digest — 10/28/26
Netanyahu Or Eisenkot? Israel’s Election Leaves Herzog With An Impossible Choice – Comment
As the first exit polls emerged on Tuesday night (27th), showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud as the largest party but Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition bloc holding more seats overall, one wonders what must be going through President Isaac Herzog’s mind.
After all, Herzog will soon have to decide which of the two men gets the first chance to form Israel’s next government, a decision that could prove particularly complicated given the apparent divisions emerging from the ballot box.
Initial projections from Kan and Channel 13 gave Likud 25 seats, compared with 23 for Eisenkot’s Yashar party, while placing the opposition bloc on 53 seats against Netanyahu’s 50. Neither side, however, appears to have the 61 seats necessary to command a Knesset majority.
Under Israeli law, the president must consult the Knesset factions before deciding who gets the task of forming a government.
Netanyahu will undoubtedly point to Likud’s position as the largest individual party, while Eisenkot has an equally compelling argument in the game of parliamentary arithmetic, pointing to his larger bloc and the bigger chance of forming a government – particularly if the parties opposed to Netanyahu can agree on a common candidate.
The question of how Eisenkot might assemble a coalition remains unanswered. Few of the parties have declared a willingness to sit with the Arab parties, who are projected to receive a record-high 18 mandates, except for Yair Golan’s Democrats.
Herzog knows how this game works well, having led the Labor Party and served as opposition leader before assuming the presidency in 2021. He will also be very aware of the political tensions that have characterized much of his presidency, and the criticism that could follow whichever decision he ultimately makes.
We should remember these are only exit polls, and the final results may still change, particularly with several smaller parties hovering around the electoral threshold.
Nevertheless, the president may soon face the most difficult decision of his tenure, as two political leaders with competing claims to the premiership seek his approval to begin assembling Israel’s next government.
Will he go with the long-time leader of Israel, the perceived protector who has led Israel in a multi-front war against its enemies? Or against the potential leader of the largest bloc, at a time when millions of Israelis have taken to the polls and demanded change. Whichever candidate Herzog eventually chooses, millions of Israelis will almost certainly be convinced the other should have had the first opportunity.
In First Exit Polls: Likud Leads, But No Clear Winner
The exit polls for the 26th Knesset elections were released Tuesday (27th) evening at 10:00 p.m., as polling stations closed, presenting a complicated political picture: Likud remains the largest party, but according to the initial figures, neither political bloc has reached the 61-seat majority needed to form a government.
In the Channel 12 News exit poll, Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, received 24 seats, while the Yashar Party led by Gadi Eisenkot, won 22.
The i24NEWS exit poll shows a wider gap between the two parties, with Likud winning 27seats compared to 20 for Eisenkot’s party.
According to Channel 12 exit poll, Bennet’s party won 12 seats and the Joint List received 11. The Democrats and Yisrael Beytenu each received nine seats, Shas eight, and Ra’am seven.
United Torah Judaism, Otzma Yehudit, and Religious Zionism each received six seats.
According to the reported bloc figures, Gadi Eisenkot’s bloc won 52 seats, while Netanyahu’s bloc received 50. This means that neither of the two blocs currently holds the majority required to form a government.
In the i24NEWS exit poll, conducted by the Direct Polls Institute, Likud received 27 seats, compared to 20 for Gadi Eisenkot;s Yashar Party.
The Channel 14 exit poll presented a different picture from the other polls, with the right-wing bloc winning 60 seats, just one seat short of the majority needed to form a government.
According to the poll, Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, is the largest party with 30 seats, followed by Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar Party with 19.
The Beyachad Party won 11 seats, the Joint List 10, and the Democrats and Shas nine seats each.
Religious Zionism, United Torah Judaism, Ra’am, and Otzma Yehudit each received seven seats, while Yisrael Beytenu led by Avigdor Liberman, won just four seats.
According to the poll, the Reservists party, the Economic Party, Amcha Yisrael, and Noam Israel failed to cross the electoral threshold.
In terms of political blocs, the right-wing bloc received 60 seats, the left -wing bloc 43, and the Arab parties 17.
The result leaves Netanyahu’s bloc within striking distance of the majority needed to form a government.
The Channel 13 News exit poll conducted by the Hamadad Polling Institute, gives Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, 25 seats, compared to 23 for Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar Party.
The Beyachad Party won 14 seats, while the Joint List received 10.
The Democrats received nine seats, while Yisrael Beytenu, Ra’am, and United Torah Judaism each won seven seats. Shas, Otzma Yehudit, and the religious Zionism-Zehut list each received six seats.
According to the poll, the parties led by Ofer Winter, Yaron Zelekha, and Leitner fail to cross the electoral threshold.
In terms of political blocs, the opposition bloc won 53 seats, the coalition bloc received 50, and the Arab parties won 17 seats.
‘A Holiday For Democracy’ As A Serious But Festive Israel Marked Election Day
Millions of Israelis turned out in record numbers for a watershed vote on Tuesday (27th): families with babies in strollers, young adults with electric scooters in hand, singles with dogs in their arms and seniors, some aided by walkers or wheelchairs.
It was a common scene at polling stations across the country as over four million Israelis voted in record numbers in an election described as historic and unprecedented in importance, though pundits said it was too close to call.
A festive if serious air punctuated the day, a public holiday in the country, as exceptionally long lines of unusually serene, if tense, Israelis snaked around schools and community centers toward voting booths, giving real-time meaning to news alerts reporting a record-breaking turnout.
Just outside the polling stations, volunteers from a mix of opposing parties handed out stickers and tried to convince eleventh-hour election-makers to vote for their candidates, while kids looking to do business sold refreshments in the courtyards on a temperate autumn day.
“It’s a holiday democracy,” Nati Adi, 40, of Tel Aviv told JNS as he held the hand of his 6-year-old son, Ari, while standing in line. “It’s nice to see that so many people care about voting.”
Camela Israeli, 31, held her mixed Labrador, Mike, in one hand and her ID and voting card in the other as she entered a classroom to vote with her dog.
“He votes for the party of snacks,” she said.
The election, the first since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, was largely seen as a referendum on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has served a cumulative 19 years in office.
“It’s an election unlike any we have had here because all Israelis have been traumatized by Oct. 7,” Amotz Asa-El, a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, told JNS on Tuesday (27th). “Never in the past did Israelis feel that there was an election as fateful as this one, some with hope and others with trepidation. The record-breaking turnout is a testament to the feeling that these are the most critical elections which will determine the future of the State of Israel,” Hebrew University of Jerusalem political scientist Gayil Talshir told JNS. “It is also part of the ethos of the new Israeli taking his fate in his own hands and going out to vote.”
Despite the seriousness of the election, families were making the most of the day.
At a park down the block, a family was holding an Election Day birthday party for their 10-year-old son, Yair, with boxes of pizza and quiches piled high on picnic tables.
“Of course, we went to vote first,” said Ilanit Cohen, 45. “We are just taking advantage of the day off as well.”
As voters exited a Tel Aviv polling station, volunteers handed out bumper stickers with a typically Israeli message: “I voted and earned the right to complain.”
(jns.org)
IDF Says Voter Turnout Among Troops Reached 79.9%, An Increase Of 6.2% compared to 2022
The final voter turnout among IDF soldiers reached 79.9%, the military said.
The IDF said this is an increase of 6.2% compared to the previous election in 2022.
Conscripts, career soldiers, and reservists began voting a week ago at over 890 polling stations deployed to military bases across the country and beyond Israel’s borders, including at army posts in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and Syria.
The ballots closed at 10 p.m. last night, when voting ended in the rest of the country.
The actual number of votes from soldiers was not released by the military, due to security concerns.
The soldiers’ votes will be counted among other absentee ballots starting this evening, according to the Central Elections Committee.
The so-called double envelopes also include votes from prisoners, medical personnel, those with medical conditions, and Israeli representatives in missions abroad.
Acting CEC director Dean Livne said that because of the overall high turnout, there could be more absentee ballots than they initially anticipated, leading to delays in completing the counting.
Giving Up The Word “Zionism” – David Hazony
Should Jews retire the word “Zionism” since it has become a lightning rod of hate? Our enemies will persecute us given the chance. They don’t play by the rules. They don’t use evidence and reason. They are committed to their conspiracy theories, their resentments, their violence and their insatiable need for destruction.
The demands they place on us right now involve changing who we are – the names we choose for ourselves, our commitment to Israel. That alone should be reason enough to say “no.” There will be no relief if we give up the word “Zionist.” The enemy will not pocket the win and go home. When it comes to antisemitism, every conciliation brings only further demands.
Zionism was the most important movement of Jewish liberation in thousands of years. It gave back our homeland, our confidence, our spine. To be a Zionist is to assert that Jews not only have rights, but also a home and a future. To give up on that, of all words, is to concede the argument – to implicitly endorse the libel that Zionism is a genocidal, colonialist, supremacist belief.
But the first reason to say we are still Zionists is that it should be a necessary, reflexive response to anyone who wants us to submit to external pressure, as a precursor to pressing us on other things: our identity, our communities. That’s reason enough to say that, yes, we are Zionists. Look into our eyes. We won’t give up the word.
The writer is director and Steinhardt senior fellow at the Z3 Institute for Jewish Priorities in Palo Alto. (Jewish News of Northern California)
Poisonous Lies About Zionism – Adam LeBor
The precisely engineered stone paving of the Pilgrimage Road in the Old City of Jerusalem, built 2,200 years ago, has recently been restored and the road opened to the public. Roman legionnaires ran amok here in 70CE, burning the shops and houses and slaughtering the Jewish rebels.
The road is proof that Zionism is not a “settler-colonial” ideology. In truth, the Jewish connection to Israel reaches back millennia to the time of Abraham. Jewish kings and dynasties exercised centuries of intermittent sovereignty from the Davidic era, around 3,000 years ago.
The father of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, argued that deep-rooted antisemitism meant the Jews had no future in Europe. He was correct, as later events proved. Modern Zionism was one of many modern anti-colonial movements pressuring the creaking Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires to grant freedom to their subject peoples. Palestinian leaders at the time – unlike their counterparts nowadays – acknowledged the historic Jewish connection to the Holy Land.
In November 1947, the UN passed Resolution 181. It proposed dividing Palestine, then under British rule, into independent Jewish and Arab states. The Zionist leadership accepted it. The Palestinians did not. The secretary-general of the Arab League declared that a Jewish state would lead to “a war of extermination and momentous massacre.” In May 1948, five Arab armies invaded. There was no war of extermination. Instead, Israel, fighting for its life, won.
Offered numerous opportunities for peace and statehood, the Palestinians have refused every one. Instead, they – and Hamas – have been rewarded by Western countries with recognition of a ghost state that does not exist. (Telegraph-UK)
