Israel’s Election: Netanyahu’s Likud Leading as the Largest Single Party

Last night’s coverage of Israel’s election was an indictment of a media establishment that keeps confusing its political wishes with election results. Anyone following those reports could have believed Netanyahu had suffered a crushing defeat. Yet Likud is leading as the largest single party. Whether he can form a governing coalition remains unresolved. That distinction is basic journalism—and coverage that obscures it fails the public.

How many times must readers be misled before these outlets lose the authority to lecture anyone about misinformation? They demand public trust while producing coverage that gives the public every reason to withhold it. Then they blame their shrinking credibility on the audiences they have failed.

תודה רבה לכם pic.twitter.com/RqarS9MLoR

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) October 28, 2026

They continue to bleed news consumers. X is now the number one news source for this very reason.

Remember this when the same outlets trumpet polls showing Democrats ahead in the midterms. Those polls do not become false because journalists promote them—but neither does relentless promotion make them a verdict. The press thinks it’s its no mandate to manufacture political inevitability. They are unable to do their most basic job, report the facts.

One thing is for sure, the polls in the US showing the Democrats leading in the mid-terms is another media gernated hoax.

The tentative numbers: Likud: 27, Yashar (the party of Eisenkot): 21. And the respective blocks (the prospective coalitions that have agreed to serve with the each of the leaders): Netanyahu: 53, Eisenkot: 49 and the Arab parties: 18 (Segal, Segal)

It looks as though Netanyahu may well have an opportunity to form a government. How he will do so is more difficult to tell. Likud and Netanyahu exceeded expectations. But the more dramatic exceeding of expectations came from the Arab parties. There are currently 10 members of Knesset from the Arab parties. If these numbers hold, that would be an 80 percent increase. It creates a number of challenges as both Netanyahu and Eisenkot have vowed to not include the Arab parties in their proposed governing coalitions. Early analysis from Amit Segal: Israel has made its voice heard, and it’s singing a hit from 2019: two blocs, no majority. We may soon be humming the chorus again: new elections. But this time, the ball is in Bibi’s court. With only 49 seats, Eisenkot can’t form a minority government unless the pacifist Islamist Ra’am actively votes for it and the anti-Zionist Joint List abstains. Bibi, meanwhile, can head back to the polls with the upper hand. If the results resemble the polls, his base will be energized, while his opponents will face a haunting thought: their best effort, a final push that took all their hope and energy, fell short (Segal)

This marks Israel’s highest voter turnout since 1999, an increase of 7.1 percentage points compared to the 2022 elections for the 25th Knesset.

Voter turnout among Arab Israelis reached 80%, reflecting particularly high participation in the election.

Artuz Sheva: 

The Central Elections Committee continues to update its official results.

The results will be updated as votes are counted and verified. The committee emphasized that the figures are preliminary and partial and may change.

According to the partial official results of Israel’s 26th Knesset elections, updated at 12:32 p.m. on Wednesday, with approximately 77.6% of the votes counted, the coalition bloc remains at 54 seats, while the change bloc gains two seats since the previous update, rising to 49 seats. The Joint List dropped back down to 11 seats, while Ra’am remains at six.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party remains the largest party with 27 seats, while Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar rose to 22 seats and Naftali Bennett’s Together party rose to 12, while the Joint List dropped to 11. The Democrats received eight seats, while Yisrael Beytenu dropped to seven. United Torah Judaism and Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit remain at seven seats, as does Shas. Ra’am and the joint Religious Zionist-Zehut list round out the list with six seats each.