The New York Times, on Targeting, 29 October 2026

3.0out of 10Minor

No Clear Winner in Israel Election, Final Results Show

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The final vote count in Israel’s election, released early Friday local time, confirmed that neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition nor the main opposition alliance won enough votes to form a government. The result sets the stage for weeks of jockeying and political uncertainty. Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party and its hard-right allies won 53 seats in Parliament, not enough to meet the 61-seat threshold for an outright majority.

The final count, from Israel’s Central Elections Committee, showed Mr. Netanyahu’s alliance was down from the 64 seats it won in the last election, in 2022. The main opposition bloc, led by Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief who had led in opinion polls for months, won 48. , their highest-ever number of seats. The results are subject to potential “minor corrections” in coming days before they are submitted to Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, on Nov. 4, the committee said just after midnight.

Mr. Herzog will decide who he thinks has the best shot at assembling a majority and ask that person to try to form a government. Mr. Herzog has said he will consult with party leaders after formally receiving the vote count next week. The final seat tally will be formalized on Nov. 4, and the political parties will be able to file complaints and legal challenges until Nov. 18. Mr. Herzog is likely to offer Mr. Eisenkot the first chance to form a government, said Assaf Shapira of the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem, a nonpartisan research group.

Based on Israeli law, and past elections, the party leader who receives the most recommendations from the other leaders who consult with the president is generally given priority, he said. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

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What we found (1)

The New York Times reports the final count in Israel's election plainly: neither Netanyahu's bloc nor Eisenkot's opposition has a majority, and Herzog will choose who tries first to form a government. In the supplied text, the Times calls the parties of Palestinian citizens of Israel only "Two Arab parties" in its own voice when reporting their record 19 seats. The rest of the article is cut off by a paywall, so this reading covers only that passage and cannot say whether the Times names their Palestinian identity later.

  1. Erases a people's national identity

    Minor

    “Two Arab parties secured 19 seats”

    Why this matters
    In its own voice the Times calls these parties "Two Arab parties". It does not quote a party name or a poll label. In the text supplied, it gives no other description of who they represent.
    The impression it gives
    A reader comes away thinking these seats belong to an ethnic minority inside Israel, with no national identity of their own and no link to the Palestinian people.
    The context
    These parties are the parties of Palestinian citizens of Israel. Survey evidence shows that most Arab citizens of Israel choose a self-description containing Palestinian: 61.9% in Smooha's 2019 survey. That is historical survey evidence, not proof about any one person. Arab and Palestinian identities can coexist, but the word Palestinian does not appear anywhere in the supplied text. The article is cut off after S16, so this applies to the portion available.

    How we know

    • On the recordIn Sammy Smooha's April-June 2019 survey of 718 adult Arab citizens of Israel, including Druze and Bedouin, 61.9% chose a self-description containing Palestinian. This is historical survey evidence, not a 2026 percentage or proof of any individual's identity. Arab and Palestinian identities can coexist.newscord.org (opens in a new tab)
    • Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “Palestinian”.

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