Israel’s election: The battle between change and anti-Palestinian sentiment
With both blocs short of a majority, parties face a choice: to break the taboo on Arab allies or return to the polls.
With Israel’s governing and opposition blocs failing to secure a majority in Israel’s election, and neither appearing ready to ally with Arab parties that could allow them to form a coalition, speculation is growing over the future shape of the government.
The vote on Tuesday, billed as one of the most important in Israel’s history, saw turnout reach 77.7 percent of eligible voters – the highest level since 1999.
With nearly 80 percent of votes counted by Wednesday afternoon, the outgoing coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, centred around his Likud party, had secured 54 seats, short of the 61 needed to establish a governing coalition.
However, both blocs ran campaigns that critics have described as profoundly racist. Likud spent much of the election race making unsubstantiated claims that the opposition was planning to form a government reliant on Arab parties after the vote, while petitioning to bar the Joint List from running.