Israel president certifies election results, challenging Netanyahu
President Isaac Herzog has accepted the official vote count after the election commission found no irregularities, setting the stage for coalition talks.
By Andrew Bennett ·
Israeli President Isaac Herzog declared the certified results of the recent parliamentary election legally binding on Wednesday. He stated he will begin formal consultations with party leaders to determine who can form a new government. This move directly contradicts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has argued that his bloc lost its majority due to vote fraud.
The election commission released a report earlier on Wednesday stating it conducted a thorough investigation into claims of fraud. The body found no evidence of irregularities that compromised the integrity of the vote or affected the final results. Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who heads the commission, told Herzog during a ceremony that the results are now legally binding.
Sohlberg warned that public trust in the electoral process is easy to destroy but difficult to repair. He noted that while suspicions of foreign interference exist, the potential impact on the outcome is limited at this stage. The Shin Bet intelligence service provided an assessment suggesting widespread influxes of foreign funds into Israel from hostile states. However, the agency did not provide evidence to support this assertion.
Neither Netanyahu’s Likud party nor the bloc of his chief rival, opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot, secured a parliamentary majority in the October 27 vote. This outcome creates a potential path for an alliance between the two rivals or between Eisenkot and Arab-led parties. Herzog is expected to meet with various political parties over the next several days to identify a candidate capable of forming a coalition. If neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot can assemble a governing majority, Israel will hold a new election early next year.
Tensions escalated regarding the investigation into alleged foreign interference. The Shin Bet requested permission from the Attorney General to interrogate several elected officials, including Ra’am party leader Mansour Abbas. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara rejected the request, stating it is not permissible to interrogate citizens or elected officials without evidence to justify the action. The Joint List of Arab parties condemned the request as a campaign of incitement designed to delegitimize the Arab vote.
Far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir rejected the committee’s findings and called on the Shin Bet to arrest leaders of Arab political parties. He suggested they be interrogated in basement cells until suspicions are clarified. Herzog said the Shin Bet investigation should proceed but cautioned that Arab Israeli voters must not be smeared. He condemned the coarseness and racist expressions heard recently in the political discourse.
The Shin Bet probe remains ongoing under the leadership of David Zini, a Netanyahu appointee. The intelligence service has not concluded its review of foreign interference allegations. The official acceptance of the election results by the president marks a formal step toward the next phase of the political process.
