Israeli Arab Parties Claim Kingmaker Status In Extra-Tight Vote

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spent much of election day warning his base that Arab citizens were voting in record numbers. He was right. 

Exit polls on Tuesday showed the two Israeli Arab parties are likely to have almost doubled their number of seats in parliament to 18, well ahead of forecasts, after party leaders rallied supporters to help oust the country's longest serving leader.   

That could make them kingmakers in what's likely to be a fraught period of negotiation over who will form the next government and how - with Netanyahu's right-wing religious alliance and the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot almost neck and neck. 

Eisenkot's bloc is on track to secure 52 of Israel's 120 parliamentary seats, according to exit polls, compared with 50 for Netanyahu. That leaves both well short of the majority of 61 needed to form a government.

Eisenkot is widely expected to hold talks with one, if not both, of the Arab parties to boost his numbers, although several issues need to be resolved. The former military chief has said he won't accept a party that doesn't acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state or recognise Hamas as a terrorist organization that must be dismantled. That would likely exclude one Israeli Arab party, The Joint List, although its leaders have said they could support any non-Netanyahu government from outside the coalition.

An accord could be more easily reached with the more moderate Ra'am, also known as the United Arab List, led by Mansour Abbas, who briefly served in an Israeli ruling coalition from 2021 to 2022.  

"I believe that in the end the numbers will work out - we'll talk," Abbas told Israel's Channel 12. "Everyone is talking to us, not just the change bloc. A few days ago, a very, very senior member of the right approached me."

Netanyahu is in a tougher position when it comes to securing Arab support, given his far-right allies would surely veto any deal. 

In a statement late Tuesday, Eisenkot called the preliminary results a "complete vote of no confidence in the Netanyahu and the Oct. 7 government," a reference to the blame many Israelis attach to the prime minister for allowing the Hamas attack on that date in 2023. He promised to "act immediately to implement the will of the people."

The stunning showing of the Israeli Arabs - who make up 20% of the country's population - compares with the 10 seats they won in 2022. 

The two parties differ in their ideologies and political strategies but were united ahead of the vote in a high-energy campaign that sought to oust Netanyahu and his right-wing government. They said life had become all but intolerable for their communities since Oct. 7, with police neglect in the face of rampant crime a particular problem.

Throughout Tuesday, Netanyahu posted photos of Arab women in burqas, the full traditional Islamic dress, saying a high Israeli Arab turnout was "a matter of life and death."

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)