The morning after: Israel’s election leaves more questions than answers

Neev offers viewers a practical guide for cutting through the deliberate noise of the coming weeks. As Laznik puts it, anyone claiming to know what happens next is lying.

Israelis went to the polls expecting clarity. What they got instead was a political puzzle no one seems able to solve. On the latest episode of The Deep Dive, host Jacob Laznik and Knesset correspondent Keshet Neev unpack a whirlwind week in which months of polling were overturned almost overnight.

With more than 97% of votes counted, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud emerged as the largest party at around 27 seats, and his bloc leads the opposition 53 to 48, yet neither side has a path to 61.

Arab parties make the difference

The kingmakers in this deadlock are the Arab parties, which won a record 19 seats on the back of turnout above 80%, well past their previous high of 15. That surge also raised the electoral threshold and wiped out every small party that had dominated months of pre-election speculation.

The conversation moves quickly through the scenarios now being whispered in the Knesset corridors. Could a unity government bring together Netanyahu, Gadi Eisenkot and Naftali Bennett? Laznik floats a provocative “200 IQ” scenario for how it might play out, and both hosts explain why the parties’ policy promises may make such a coalition unworkable, pointing to the Gantz precedent as a cautionary tale. They also examine the Arab parties’ unusual new posture, now focused less on longstanding red lines and more on ousting Netanyahu, alongside Avigdor Liberman’s role as the opposition’s wild card.

Then there is the story that broke publicly later: a Shin Bet investigation into possible foreign interference, with Qatar and Turkey reportedly under scrutiny. Qatar has denied involvement, and the Central Elections Committee says the integrity of the vote remains intact.

The hosts also look beyond Israel’s borders. They discuss how next week’s US midterms could reshape Washington’s approach to Iran, why reports of Donald Trump’s views on far-right ministers might push Netanyahu toward a broader coalition, and what it means that Netanyahu used election night to name toppling the Iranian regime as his first priority. They also reflect on what these first post–October 7 elections reveal: a Netanyahu bloc still in the lead, but noticeably weaker than before the war.

Neev offers viewers a practical guide for cutting through the deliberate noise of the coming weeks. As Laznik puts it, anyone claiming to know what happens next is lying.