President Donald Trump said he would consider taking part in efforts to form Israel’s next government, as preliminary projections left both major blocs short of a parliamentary majority.
The Petek tracker, drawing on Central Elections Committee data, put Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc at 53 seats, the opposition led by Gadi Eisenkot at 48 and Arab-led parties at 19. Its latest snapshot reflected 99.37% of ballots counted; the tracker says its projections can change. Israel’s 120-seat Knesset, or parliament, needs 61 seats for a majority.
In an Oct. 28 interview with Axios, Trump replied, “I will take a look,” when asked about possible U.S. involvement in efforts to form a unity government led by Netanyahu. Axios reported that Trump had not considered the idea before.
An unnamed U.S. official told The Times of Israel the administration had not decided whether to intervene in coalition formation. The outlet said the official rejected as “false and premature” reports that Washington favored a particular arrangement.
The 19 projected seats are split between the Joint List and Ra’am. The Times of Israel reported that the combined total would be a record for Arab-led parties, compared with 10 seats in the outgoing Knesset. Their support could lift the opposition above 61, but most Jewish-led opposition parties had ruled out cooperating with either group during the campaign, the outlet reported.
Balad party leader Sami Abu Shehadeh criticized Arab parties’ exclusion from coalition talks in an interview with Al Jazeera. “This is racism,” he said. The Associated Press cited Israel’s 2021 coalition as a recent precedent: it included an Arab party and remained in office for about 18 months.
The Associated Press also reported that Likud accused Arab-led parties of stealing the election without presenting specific evidence. The Central Elections Committee told AP that reports of irregularities were few. The committee plans to publish final results in the official gazette by Nov. 4.
