Israeli Election Ends in Deadlock as Netanyahu’s Likud and Eisenkot’s Yashar Fall Short of Majority

Israelis voted on Tuesday in their first national election since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks. Turnout reached nearly 78 percent, the highest in more than 25 years. No party emerged as a clear winner, and the country now faces a deadlock that could take weeks to resolve.

Calev Myers, an Israeli Christian attorney and chairman of the Judeo-Christian Zionist Congress, described the results as “super strange.” “Everyone has both won and lost,” he said. “There’s no clear outcome, and it looks like we’re heading for another election.”

With 85 percent of the votes counted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and its coalition members were likely to take 53 seats in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. The bloc led by centrist former military chief Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party would have 48 seats, and Arab parties were projected to take 19. No group has the 61 seats required for a majority.

The October 7 attacks and the war that followed weighed heavily on voters. According to an Israel Democracy Institute survey, nearly two-thirds of Jewish Israelis said the attacks were a deciding factor in choosing their party. During his campaign, Netanyahu presented himself as a bulwark against a nuclear Iran. He posted an AI-generated image of a nuclear bomb exploding over Tel Aviv and warned Israelis of a “second Holocaust” if he was not elected. His supporters credit him with resisting international pressure and leading military campaigns that they say have degraded Hamas, Hezbollah, and the regime in Tehran.

Netanyahu’s opponents accused him of using fear to win votes. Others questioned his decision to seek reelection after the security failures surrounding the October 7 attacks, and viewed the vote as a referendum on his leadership. Myers said the failures were “the greatest security failure in the history of the state of Israel, and perhaps in the history of the modern Zionist movement.” He added that “a prime minister who has dominated Israeli politics for nearly two decades cannot claim credit for the country’s successes while distancing himself from responsibility for its greatest failure,” a statement that reflects the kind of honest accountability Proverbs 11:1 calls for.

Myers said he has observed considerable support among Christian Israelis in his circles for right-of-center opposition leaders such as Eisenkot, and that others remain loyal to Netanyahu, though he believes they are the minority. He said most of the Israeli believers he interacts with are conservative on security and economic policy, yet are “deeply troubled by the disproportionate political influence of ultra-Orthodox parties that resist military service and by elements of the far right whose anti-Christian rhetoric, racism, and diplomatic provocations undermine Israel’s interests and moral standing.”

Under Israeli law, the president, Isaac Herzog, is not required to ask the leader of the party that wins the most seats to form a government. Although Likud is expected to win more seats, Herzog will determine which lawmaker has the best chance of securing a 61-seat majority, and he could give Eisenkot the mandate. Eisenkot, 66, is known for his direct approach and simple attire. His son, the youngest of his five children, died in a Gaza tunnel explosion two months after the October 7 attacks, and two of his nephews have also been killed on the battlefield. Eisenkot’s parents were working-class Moroccan immigrants, and if he becomes prime minister he would be Israel’s first leader of North African or Middle Eastern descent.

The outcome may not be settled for six weeks or more. After results are published, Herzog has seven days to decide which Knesset member will form the governing coalition. That lawmaker then has 28 days to complete the task, with a possible 14-day extension. Some potential partners are controversial. Polls show that most Jewish Israelis have grown increasingly disillusioned with the ultra-Orthodox parties that have partnered with Likud, which have sought to keep exemptions from compulsory military service for ultra-Orthodox men despite a 2024 Supreme Court ruling ending such exemptions.

Some analysts believe unchecked settler violence in the West Bank has harmed Israel’s international standing. Critics have accused Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners of failing to rein in the violence. Some members of his coalition have also adopted positions hostile toward Christians and other religious minorities.

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