BY SRH
As Election Portends Gridlock, Democrats’ Golan Urges Coalition With Arabs to Oust Netanyahu. Joint List Chairman Says He’s Ready to ‘Pave the Way’ for Netanyahu’s Ouster; With 85.6% of Votes Counted, Pm’s Bloc on Track to Win 53 Seats, Eisenkot’s 48, and Arab Parties 19.
If voting made a difference, they wouldn’t let us.
As near-final election results showed a political deadlock, Democrats party chairman Yair Golan urged his fellow opposition “change bloc” members to reverse their election pledges and ally with the Arab-led Joint List and Ra’am parties to overthrow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Central Elections Committee reported that Netanyahu’s party had 53 seats while Yashar head Gadi Eisenkot’s bloc had 48 after counting 93 percent of ordinary ballots, 85.6% of the total. Arab parties have 19 seats, a record number, up from 10 in the outgoing Knesset, and 15 in 2020. A majority in the 120-member Knesset requires 61 MPs.
The CEC stated the remaining 7% of conventional ballots will require further scrutiny, and 600,000 double envelope votes—cast by troops, diplomats, convicts, and others who could not vote near their homes—have yet to be counted. These should be added in the coming days.
“Netanyahu lost. I count to 120. More than 55 is 65. Israeli democracy operates that way. On X, Golan wrote Period.
Eisenkot’s bloc, which included Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad, Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu, and the Democrats, could not win a Knesset majority without Arab-majority support, highlighting their potential influence on the next government. Except for the Democrats, no party has declared they will form a coalition with Arab parties.
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Reality must teach us one thing: We have no future if we don’t stop being fearful. And if racism continues. Golan added in his post that Netanyahu’s discriminatory distinction between Jewish and Arab voters must end.
Let’s discuss Zionism now. 16 non-Zionist Haredi Knesset members in Netanyahu’s bloc support mass conscription avoidance while our children are fighting and dying, stated Golan, a former IDF deputy chief. In Israel’s general elections on October 27, 2026, Likud campaign posters outside Ashkelon polling stations portray Arab party leaders and Zionist anti-Netanyahu party leaders with the phrase “Either the right, or Palestine.”
Let Netanyahu withdraw 16 Knesset members from non-Zionist Haredi parties from his bloc if he insists on having just a Zionist majority. They won’t lecture us on Zionism, he said.
Zionism dominates the change bloc, 49 to 39. He cited earlier data to say the change bloc has an Israeli majority: 65 against 55.
Our majority. We’re accountable. We may build a change government with Israel’s Arab citizens. A government for all Israelis. Courage is needed now. It requires leadership. Stopping fear and acting is necessary, he said.
Joint List leader: Eager to ‘pave the way’ for PM ouster
Meanwhile, Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen declared, “We are ready and willing to pave the way for the Netanyahu government’s removal.”
“We offer a completely different alternative to the government of bloodshed, supremacy, racism, and exclusion. Real, equal Jewish-Arab partnership drives change. Neither less nor more, he said.
Jabareen told Ynet that he will “leverage our political power to advance the values we believe in.”
After polling booths close on election nite, October 27, 2026, Joint List party chairman Yousef Jabareen and supporters gather at the party’s election headquarters in Nazareth, northern Israel.
On Wednesday, Joint List Ta’al leader MK Ahmad Tibi told Saudi Al-Hadath that “there is a real chance to replace the Netanyahu government,” and that “Gadi Eisenkot is the candidate closest to forming a government.”
Liberman, chair of Yisrael Beytenu, and Bennett, chair of B’Yachad, have promised not to create a government with Arab parties. To win a Knesset majority, they must break that commitment. They formed a brief government with Ra’am in 2021–2022.
Eisenkot has said he will not form a coalition with Ra’am or the Palestinian nationalist Joint List.
The previous party, considered more moderate, has a Jewish former lawmaker from Yesh Atid (now Bennett’s B’Yachad) on its roster and has received praise from right-wing groups.
Despite criticizing Hamas’ October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel, its chairman, Mansour Abbas, has neither called it a terror organization or called for its extinction. Iman Khatib-Yassin, a party MK, questioned if children had been slain or women raped during the attack. She then apologized, claiming she didn’t mean to belittle or deny “the terrible acts against women, babies, or the elderly.” On election nite, October 27, 2026, Ra’am MK Iman Khatib-Yassin (R) speaks as party leader Mansour Abbas watches after exit poll results in Sakhnin, northern Israel.
Commentators have also recommended a unity government including parties from both blocs. Opposition parties have refused to engage with Netanyahu or ultra-Orthodox parties, and Bennett and Golan have ruled out involving any cabinet member.
The prime minister used large banners with AI-generated images of Joint List and Ra’am leaders alongside anti-Netanyahu bloc leaders and the slogan “It’s the right, or Palestine” to highlight the opposition’s supposed alliance with Arab parties.
The opposition has criticized the coalition for collaborating with its two ultra-Orthodox parties to formalize long-standing exemptions for most Haredi men from military duty. Some prominent spiritual leaders of these two parties are non-Zionist and oppose the state’s claim on Jewishness theologically, not due to geographical problems.
Channel 12 reported on Wednesday that the anti-Netanyahu parties, including the Arab parties, may use their majority of seats to replace Likud Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and control the incoming Knesset’s agenda.
Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer and Yashar Mayor Elazar Stern were mentioned as candidates, but the parties have not chosen one.
