Children on a playground wave flags supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a protest outside Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot’s residence in Herzliya, Israel on November 1, 2026 against the formation of a Jewish-Arab government.
| Photo Credit: AP
For the Israeli Knesset election hyped as “consequential” and a “day of reckoning for the October 7 Hamas attack”, the verdict points to new trends and the normalisation of trenchant nationalism. The inconclusive outcome risks disappointing most stakeholders. Israel, being at the epicentre of the ongoing regional tumult, needs a real-time analysis.
Israel’s total electorate is 7.3 million. Yet it has 38 officially recognised political parties vying for 120 Knesset seats, of which only 11 parties are likely to cross the 3.25% voting threshold needed to enter the legislature. The elections are on a proportional representation basis. The parties are currently arrayed in three coalitions: the ruling extreme right, the centrist bloc and the Israeli-Arab bloc which got 53, 48 and 19 seats, respectively. The last group representing a 21% minority is largely untouchable for mainstream Jewish parties. The electorate is also split along ethnic and origin-based lines into occidental, oriental and orthodox cohorts. Since the last elections in 2022, nearly half a million new voters have come of age. The voter turnout jumped by nearly a tenth to 77.7% — a sign of sharp political engagement.
Published – November 03, 2026 01:16 am IST
