Israeli officials say elections will stand after Netanyahu claimed Arabs
stole vote
[November 02, 2026]
By MELANIE LIDMAN
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's
efforts to question last week's elections weakened Sunday as officials
said the vote would not be undermined by the allegations and a court
ordered suspects in one case released.
In an image that indicated officials were on the same page, the head of
Israel’s elections committee was shown sitting between Israel's attorney
general and the head of the Shin Bet intelligence service for a
statement making clear that even if claims of foreign interference
raised last week are substantiated, the vote would stand.
Netanyahu's Likud party has said, without giving evidence, that Arab-led
parties “stole” the elections in which Netanyahu's bloc lost its
majority of seats in parliament. By casting doubt on the vote, Netanyahu
appears to be trying to block any potential alliance in the opposition
with the Arab parties that could force him from office.
Likud has cited a handful of cases, including the arrests of three
political activists before polls opened on Oct. 27 with envelopes of
cash, allegedly to bribe voters. Two days later, police arrested four
more suspects. Police said the suspects were connected to the Islamist
party Ra'am, which denied that it was involved.
A judge on Sunday questioned or rejected police requests for further
restrictions on the three suspects. Police later said one was released
subject to unspecified “conditions” and another was ordered to remain on
house arrest for eight days. The detention of the third suspect was
extended for two days.
Mansour Abbas, leader of the Ra’am party, which won eight seats in the
Knesset, denounced the arrests as undemocratic and “an attempt to
influence the election results.”
Netanyahu suggests joining with Arab parties is treason
Netanyahu saw his parliamentary bloc of allies drop to 53 seats in the
120-member Knesset, down from a peak of 68 in the outgoing parliament.
A bloc of parties led by his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, won 48 seats,
while Arab-led parties, including Ra’am, won the remaining 19 seats.
Together, those two blocs opposing Netanyahu have enough seats to form a
new government, though it remains unclear whether they will agree to do
so.
The results are due to be officially certified this week, and President
Isaac Herzog on Wednesday will begin meeting with each of the parties
elected to parliament after that to see who they prefer to be the next
prime minister.
Following those consultations, he will choose the candidate — most
likely Netanyahu or Eisenkot — who he believes has the best chance of
forming a coalition government.
That would set the stage for weeks of negotiations. If they are
unsuccessful, Herzog could ask another candidate to try. Otherwise, the
country would be plunged into a new election early next year.
Netanyahu has suggested that it would be treasonous for Eisenkot to join
with Arab parties. Some Israelis agree. A few dozen people protested
outside Eisenkot's home on Sunday night.
[to top of second column]
|
Supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu protest outside
Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot's residence against the formation
of a Jewish-Arab government, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in Herzliya,
Israel. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
“We have a tiny country, a very tiny Jewish country. We want to keep
it as a Jewish country,” said one protester, Shoshana Idasis. Other,
larger rallies in recent days have called for a Jewish-Arab
coalition.
Eisenkot accuses Netanyahu of trying to delegitimize the vote
Likud also has alleged foreign interference in the vote. The Shin
Bet security service, at the request of Israel’s election
commission, has opened an investigation.
But the head of the elections committee, Supreme Court Justice Noam
Sohlberg, said that "our position is that even if the suspicions are
substantiated, this would not undermine the integrity of the
electoral process or the election results as a whole.”
Likud quickly issued a statement asking how the committee chief can
acknowledge there are serious allegations while saying there will be
no effect on the final outcome.
Eisenkot on Sunday accused Netanyahu of launching an “orchestrated
and organized campaign to delegitimize the election results” by
insinuating that Qatar had supported opposition parties to unseat
Netanyahu. Eisenkot said that Shin Bet briefed him on the
investigation into foreign interference.
Qatar has denied funding any activities meant to influence the
election's outcome. Many Israelis see the Gulf Arab country as a
patron of Hamas, and allegations of its influence have roiled
Israeli politics in other cases, including one in which close aides
of Netanyahu allegedly accepted money from Qatar while working for
the prime minister’s office.
Netanyahu’s opponents have accused him of using scare tactics and
trying to create a narrative to further discriminate against
Arab-led parties and Israel’s Arab citizens, who make up 20% of the
population.
Yousef Jabareen, leader of the Joint List of Arab parties, which won
11 seats, noted last week that more than half the content published
by Likud and Netanyahu on election day was directed against Arab
voters as a tactic to encourage right-wing Israelis to vote.
“In moments of crisis, he reverts to his familiar tactic: racist
incitement and the delegitimization of the Arab public,” he said.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
