Israeli President Isaac Herzog has dealt a setback to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to challenge last week’s election results, formally accepting the outcome as legally binding and beginning consultations to form a new government.
The move comes after Netanyahu and his political allies lost their parliamentary majority in the October 27 election, while Arab-led parties recorded historic gains in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
“The elections are over. Now is the time to face reality,” Herzog said on Wednesday.
Netanyahu and his supporters had repeatedly claimed, without providing evidence, that Arab-led parties had “stolen” the election, possibly with assistance from foreign countries.
Herzog began meeting political representatives on Wednesday night to determine who should be given the opportunity to form the next government, potentially paving the way for Netanyahu’s opponents to take power.
The development followed an announcement by Israel’s Central Elections Committee that it had found no evidence of electoral fraud affecting the integrity or outcome of the vote.
After investigating allegations raised by various parties, the commission said it had found “no evidence of irregularities that compromised the integrity of the election or affected its results”.
The Shin Bet intelligence agency is separately investigating allegations of foreign interference. However, its investigation has yet to establish whether any such activity affected the election outcome.
During a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who heads the elections committee, read out an intelligence assessment claiming there had been a “widespread phenomenon involving the influx of substantial funds into Israel from foreign states”, including countries hostile towards Israel.
However, the Shin Bet provided no evidence to support the assertion.
Sohlberg stressed that allegations of foreign interference remained suspicions and warned against undermining public confidence in the electoral process.
“At this stage, these are merely suspicions, and even if they are substantiated, the scope of their potential impact is limited,” he said.
He added that the election results were legally binding, warning that public trust was “easy to destroy, yet very difficult to repair”.
Meanwhile, the coalition-building process has begun, although neither Netanyahu’s bloc nor the opposition alliance led by his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, secured enough seats to form a government independently.
The results have raised the possibility of an alliance between the two political rivals or a coalition involving Eisenkot and some Arab-led parties.
During Wednesday’s consultations, three political factions aligned with Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist camp recommended that he be given the opportunity to form a government.
A fourth faction, led by a former Netanyahu ally who has since become his rival, backed Eisenkot.
Eight other parties, including two Arab-led factions, are scheduled to meet Herzog on Thursday. Eisenkot’s Yashar party and Netanyahu’s Likud party are expected to hold the final consultations.
Following the meetings, Herzog will select the candidate he believes has the best chance of securing enough support to form a coalition, most likely Netanyahu or Eisenkot.
The chosen candidate will then have several weeks to negotiate with other parties and assemble a government. If neither succeeds, Israel could face another election early next year.
Separately, the Shin Bet has come under criticism after reportedly seeking permission to question several elected Arab politicians as part of its foreign interference investigation.
Those reportedly targeted included Ra’am party leader Mansour Abbas and other senior Arab lawmakers.
However, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara rejected the request, saying there was insufficient evidence to justify questioning them.
“It is not permissible to interrogate citizens or elected officials without evidence to justify such action,” she said.
The Joint List of Arab parties condemned the move, describing it as a campaign of incitement allegedly intended to undermine the legitimacy of Arab voters.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir went further, calling on the Shin Bet to arrest Arab political leaders and question them over the allegations, despite having no authority over the intelligence agency.
Herzog said the investigation into possible foreign interference should continue, but warned against targeting Arab Israeli voters with accusations.
He also condemned what he described as racist language directed at the Arab community.
“I condemn the coarseness and racist expressions that we have heard recently,” he said.
