Prepared by and sent from Jewish Federations of North America’s Israel Office 

  • Eisenkot on track to get first shot at forming Israel’s next government
  • Trump says US military aid to Israel will end this year
  • Israeli opposition blames Netanyahu after Democrats sweep Congress
  • US strikes Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz

Post-Elections: Forming a Coalition

  • With all votes counted, the final results published last Friday give Prime Minister Netanyahu’s bloc 53 seats, the Eisenkot-led opposition bloc 48 seats, and the Arab parties 19, a record for that sector.

    The final results:

    Pro-Netanyahu bloc: 53Likud (Netanyahu): 27
    United Torah Judaism (Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox): 7
    Otzma Yehudit (Ben Gvir): 7
    Shas (Sefardi ultra-Orthodox): 6
    Religious Zionism (Smotrich): 6

    Change bloc: 48
    Yashar (Eisenkot): 21
    B’Yachad (Bennett-Lapid): 12
    Yisrael Beytenu (Liberman): 8
    The Democrats (Yair Golan): 7

    Arab parties bloc: 19
    Joint List: 11
    Ra’am (Abbas): 8

    Total: 120 seats

  • Compared with the partial count in last week’s update, Ra’am gained two seats and B’Yachad one, while the Joint List, Yisrael Beytenu and Shas each lost one. Final turnout was 77.9%, with 5,716,665 votes cast. Numerous parties fell below the 3.25% electoral threshold, including: Yoaz Hendel’s Reservists (2.63%), Ofer Winter’s Amcha Yisrael (1.7%) and the ultra-Orthodox Charedi Public party (0.2%).
  • Following questions by members of the current coalition and others, yesterday, Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg presented the official results to President Herzog. “In recent days, voices have been heard seeking to cast aspersions on the election results and to challenge their validity. This is a real danger,” Sohlberg said. “The election results, as they are determined by law, are binding on all of us.”
  • Earlier this week, Justice Sohlberg rejected requests from Likud and from the committee’s 16 coalition members to delay certification of the results, writing that “neither the plenum nor anyone else has the legal power to delay the publication.”
  • President Herzog began consultations with the parties yesterday on who should be tasked with forming the government. On Sunday, he said, “The elections are over, the election results are an established fact — they are reality.”
  • Yashar, B’Yachad, the Democrats, Yisrael Beytenu, and Ra’am have said they will recommend Eisenkot, giving him the backing of 56 MKs. Likud, Otzma Yehudit, Shas, and Religious Zionism back Netanyahu, with 46.
  • This morning, the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism declined to recommend any candidate, on the instructions of its rabbis, over the outgoing coalition’s failure to pass a law enshrining military service exemptions for yeshiva students. UTJ told Herzog its support for any future government will depend on such legislation.
  • Representatives of Shas told Herzog, “It is Prime Minister Netanyahu who will form a unity government, and we want you, Mr. President, to grant him the mandate.”
  • The Joint List has now said that it will recommend Eisenkot, giving the opposition figure a leading edge. On Saturday, the Joint List’s No. 2, MK Ahmad Tibi, said, “We won’t be part of the government. I don’t want a ministerial post. I don’t want to be in the cabinet,” adding, “But without the Arab parties there won’t be change.”
  • Herzog is expected to assign the mandate between Friday and next Tuesday. The candidate will then have 28 days to try to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension. The new Knesset will be sworn in on Tuesday, November 10.
  • Earlier this week, opposition leaders Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, Avigdor Liberman, and Yair Golan met in Herzliya and agreed to launch coalition talks.
  • Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman said on Monday, “The world could turn upside down, I will not sit with Netanyahu. Even if he offers me a rotation and I’d be first [as prime minister], it won’t happen.”
  • Likud coalition whip Ofir Katz said on Sunday, “We oppose rotation, after the election results showed a high level of confidence in us. Whoever wants can join the government on the basis of the existing coalition.”
  • Shas leader Aryeh Deri asked the party’s Council of Torah Sages to let him step down after Shas won six seats, down from 11 in 2022 and its worst result since 1992. The rabbis rejected the request, and he will remain party leader.

Possible Coalition Scenarios

  • Going forward, a number of possibilities exist, given the election results:
  • A Netanyahu-led coalition needs at least eight seats beyond his bloc’s current 53 to form a stable coalition – and more if United Torah Judaism stays out after declining to recommend him this week. The extra seats would have to come from parties that campaigned against Netanyahu. Liberman has ruled it out, and Likud’s coalition whip, Ofir Katz, said others could only join “on the basis of the existing coalition,” with no rotation.
  • An Eisenkot-led coalition of the four opposition parties has 48 seats, 13 short of a majority. Eisenkot has said neither Arab party meets his conditions for joining a government. United Torah Judaism says its support for any government depends on a law preserving yeshiva students’ military service exemptions, while Eisenkot has pledged “a law of service for all.”
  • A minority government is possible because a new government only needs more votes for it than against it in the Knesset confidence vote, not the full 61. For example, if Ra’am voted for an Eisenkot government and the Joint List abstained, it would pass 56–53. Israeli media reported that Eisenkot is exploring this option, though his party said the reports were not issued with its approval, and Liberman has said Yisrael Beytenu won’t join such a minority government. (There is a precedent: in 1993, after Shas left, Yitzhak Rabin’s 56-seat government relied on outside support from five Arab MKs). Read more: Netanyahu survives the election, but Eisenkot holds key to replacing him and An Israeli Government with 59 MKs?.
  • A broad unity government of Likud and Yashar would have 48 seats, or 68 with Yisrael Beytenu and B’Yachad. Herzog has urged leaders to “stop climbing trees” to avoid another election, and Shas told him Netanyahu “will form a unity government.” Eisenkot, however, has said he would “resign the next day” if an emergency government with Netanyahu were formed.
  • New elections would follow if no one can form a government. Herzog can give the first candidate up to 42 days and a second candidate 28 days, after which 61 MKs can ask him to name a specific third candidate. If all of these fail, the Knesset dissolves and a new election is held about three months later, with Netanyahu staying on as caretaker prime minister.

Foreign Interference Probe

  • Last Thursday, Justice Sohlberg asked the Shin Bet to look into “serious suspicions of improper influence through foreign funding” in the election. Investigators are examining allegations that sources in Qatar and Turkey funded campaigns to improperly influence voting patterns. A joint Shin Bet–police investigative team has been set up.
  • Israeli media reported that Shin Bet chief David Zini sought to question four Arab party leaders. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said no one may be questioned without sufficient evidence, and asked for evidence on three of them. The Shin Bet said it sought to question people around the MKs, not the MKs themselves. Zini told Justice Sohlberg, “I won’t move a centimeter from what the attorney general instructs me to do.”
  • Israeli media identified outgoing MK Ayman Odeh, former leader of the Joint List, as suspected of receiving hundreds of thousands of shekels (more than $60,000) in cash from a foreign source. Odeh called the probe “political persecution.”
  • Presenting the results, Justice Sohlberg said, “At this stage, these are only suspicions, and even if they are verified, the scope of their potential influence is limited.” He added, “The suspicions do not cast aspersions on the votes of the Arab community in any way.” A committee review of protocols from 9,069 polling stations found “no irregularities or findings that would suggest that the integrity of the election had been compromised.”
  • President Herzog said “patience is needed” and that Arab society “must not be smeared.” “I condemn the coarseness and racist expressions that we have heard recently. There is no place for them toward any community in Israel.”
  • For more information on how the President assigns the task of forming the government, see here.

Israeli Reactions to US Midterms

  • Democrats took control of both the House and the Senate in a “blue tsnunami” on Tuesday’s midterm elections. The election swept in a slew of new candidates, including a significant group of moderate Democrats in traditionally “red” areas, as well as many Democratic Socialist candidates critical of Israel that had won primaries in deeper “blue” areas earlier this year. In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, an outspoken critic of Israel, won a Senate seat.
  • On Election Day, President Trump said US military aid to Israel will end this year. “We were giving them $4 billion. We are. But it gets cut off at the end of the year,” he said in a phone interview with Fox News. “Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal. … They don’t need it. … We’ll help Israel if they need it.” The current US-Israel agreement, worth $3.8 billion a year, runs until September 2028.
  • Netanyahu has proposed phasing out US aid over a decade. In a TV interview last week, he said, “It’s over, and it will be over. It’s just a matter of time.” The Prime Minister’s Office has not commented on Trump’s announcement.
  • A Finance Ministry official told Israeli media, “The ministry was aware of the intention to end it, but was surprised by the intention to do so immediately.” A senior defense official said, “We did not expect this announcement, certainly not today.”
  • Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren said, “If anyone doubted that we are in a different era of U.S.-Israel relations, here we have it. A policy that continued for 50 years is now ending.” He added, “Ultimately, I think it’s a good thing, but I fear it doesn’t stop with military aid.”
  • Yesterday, Vice President JD Vance posted, “The reason we lost is the war,” referring to Iran. Citing a pollster, he listed what would win back voters: “1) End the [Iran] war. 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation. 3) Put America First. 4) Change our relationship to Israel.” Trump called Vance’s post “largely true because it drove the gasoline up a little bit short term.”
  • Responding during the coalition consultations, President Herzog said, “I just heard the remarks by Vice President Vance. These are sentiments that are in the air in our great friend and ally. And I have respect for President Trump, for Vice President Vance, and for the Democratic Party. Israel has always made every effort to be bipartisan.”
  • Opposition leaders blamed Netanyahu. On the aid announcement, Gadi Eisenkot said, “He can no longer be trusted and must be replaced.” Yair Golan said the midterm results “reveal just how toxic Netanyahu has become, both among Democrats and Republicans,” and Yair Lapid said, “Israel cannot afford for him to remain prime minister.” Eisenkot also pledged to renew the bipartisan US-Israel alliance.
  • Voters in Providence, Rhode Island, approved a ballot initiative that could lead to divestment of city funds from Israel.

Iran

  • Last week, US media reported that Washington had told Gulf states to prepare for a short but intense offensive against Iran after the midterms. Trump has framed the choice as “Either they’ll make a deal, or we’ll just end it.” Since Tuesday’s vote, he has said, “We’re locked and loaded if we need to go, but there may be no reason for it,” and, “The war will end whenever I want it to. But it’s got to be done right.” Asked whether the war cost Republicans at the polls, he said, “I did the right thing. I would have done it again.” Israel has not taken part in strikes on Iran since April.
  • Early Tuesday, US forces struck Qeshm Island, at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, hitting radar installations and missile launch sites, US media reported. American  officials described the strike as “defensive,” reportedly in response to Iranian fire on American aircraft. They said the US has been carrying out limited, unannounced strikes for weeks.
  • On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that after talks with Qatari mediators, Iran was offering a “two-day plan”: “On the first day, the U.S. implements a set of measures, and on the second day, the Strait of Hormuz reopens and transit returns to its previous state.” The deal on the table is reported to be Iran halting attacks on shipping in exchange for the US lifting its blockade of Iranian ports. Trump rejected an earlier seven-day offer in September.
  • The same day, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said “any level or type of threat must be met with an immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response.” He also called for an updated list of US and Israeli targets.
  • In an AP Election Day poll, about 6 in 10 US voters said the US made the “wrong decision” in taking military action against Iran.
  • This morning, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said two tankers and a tugboat that tried to use “unauthorized” routes through the Strait of Hormuz caught fire.

Other News

  • The IDF said strikes in Gaza City and Khan Younis on Sunday and Monday killed seven terrorists, including Jamal Abu Saeed, chief of operations in Hamas’s military intelligence arm. “During the war, Abu Saeed held Omer Shem Tov captive on behalf of Hamas,” the IDF said. Shem Tov was kidnapped from the Nova festival on October 7 and released in February 2025.
  • Yesterday, the IDF carried out its first airstrike in southern Lebanon in weeks, targeting two suspects it said were “observing IDF troops,” killing one. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said, “Any attempt by the enemy to entrench itself, build up its capabilities, or threaten northern communities will be met immediately and forcefully.”
  • A senior official in the Transportation Ministry’s security division was questioned by police over suspected conflicts of interest linked to last month’s foiled attack on flydubai Flight 1073.
  • Late last month, US chipmaker Intel agreed to acquire Israeli quantum computing startup Classiq for about $2.3 billion in cash and shares. It is the largest quantum computing acquisition in the world to date and Intel’s biggest Israeli purchase since it bought Mobileye for $15.3 billion in 2017. Founded in 2020, Classiq makes software that lets developers build quantum applications. It has about 150 employees, and its customers include BMW, Rolls-Royce, HSBC, and Citi.
  • In a letter sent last month and reported on yesterday, President Herzog warned Prime Minister Netanyahu, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, and other senior officials about violence by Jewish extremists in the West Bank. “A severe flare-up on the ground is liable to carry severe and far-reaching consequences, both for Israel’s security and its functioning as a sovereign state, and for Israel’s international standing, Diaspora Jewry, the Israeli economy, and more,” he wrote. “Without visible enforcement and real deterrence, we will arrive at a disaster.” Herzog wrote the letter after visiting the IDF’s Judea and Samaria Division headquarters.