Israel

Israel’s political leaders were poised for weeks of jockeying over the shape of the next government, as initial results on Wednesday showed no clear winner in a tightly fought national election that many have described as a make-or-break moment for the country.

If neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line alliance, nor a bloc of opposition parties led by Gadi Eisenkot win enough seats to form a government, both would need to find support from outside their blocs for backing as prime minister.

Maybe in the New Year.

No clear winner emerged in Israel’s election, according to exit polls published by Channels 11, 12, and 13 on Tuesday night, all of which showed both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc and the opposition bloc seeking to replace him falling short of a 61-seat Knesset majority.

With less than one week before the Israeli election, 30 per cent of eligible voters say they are “undecided.” After three years of war and horror, many Israelis are anxious and depleted.

Even before October 7, the coalition government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had shaken the country to its core. The “judicial reform” policy that was being rammed through the Knesset sparked months of unprecedented civil discord and disobedience. Netanyahu’s coalition partners were determined to re-imagine the judiciary and quasi-constitutional framework of the country in a manner that would give the elected representatives in the Knesset absolute control over all branches of government and, tellingly, the judiciary.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s party has compared the New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani to the leaders of Iran and Hezbollah on a campaign billboard.

The billboard in central Tel Aviv depicts Mamdani alongside the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, and the chief of the militant group Hezbollah, Naim Qassem.

“They want Netanyahu to lose … Don’t let them win,” says the poster featuring the logo of Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party.