{"id":3469,"date":"2026-10-29T10:04:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T05:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3469"},"modified":"2026-10-29T10:04:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T05:04:00","slug":"israels-election-gives-netanyahu-a-path-to-keep-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3469","title":{"rendered":"Israel’s election gives Netanyahu a path to keep power"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Benjamin Netanyahu looked set to remain Israel\u2019s caretaker prime minister after unexpectedly strong backing among radical Jewish voters left his opponents little apparent prospect of unseating him, \u200bdespite his right-wing bloc losing its parliamentary majority.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With nearly 86% of votes tallied<\/a> on Wednesday, Israel\u2019s three main broadcasters projected Netanyahu\u2019s bloc of right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties would win 53 \u200cseats in the 120-seat Knesset, well ahead of the 48 for rival Gadi Eisenkot<\/a>\u2019s opposition bloc.<\/p>\n

Parties representing Arab Israelis were projected to win an unprecedented 19 seats, leaving Eisenkot little realistic path to power without their broad backing, which many Jewish political leaders reject.<\/p>\n

The results could still change as counting continued, but Eisenkot\u2019s bloc of anti-Netanyahu parties, ranging from the centre-left to the hard right, had fallen short of pre-election polls that forecast a tight race.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu would remain caretaker prime minister during any coalition negotiations<\/a> and \u200bpotentially until another election next year.<\/p>\n

While a caretaker government faces some constraints, experts say it retains powers, including over the war with Iran.<\/p>\n

Guy Lurie, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, \u200bsaid a caretaker government<\/a> formally had the same powers as a regular government, but also \u201ca duty of restraint\u201d and less discretion in some areas.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Security fight sharpens<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Netanyahu, addressing \u2060his Likud party\u2019s faithful after 3am, called for the formation of \u201ca strong, right-wing national government.\u201d<\/p>\n

He highlighted Israel\u2019s military successes and raised the prospect of renewed joint military action against Iran<\/a> alongside his ally, US President \u200bDonald Trump, saying the two countries had a \u201csingular historical opportunity\u201d to remove what he called the Iranian threat \u201conce and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, who had urged Israeli voters to keep Netanyahu in power so the two leaders could \u201cfinish the \u200bjob\u201d in Iran, said Netanyahu had done \u201cvery well\u201d and claimed his endorsement had \u201chelped him a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eisenkot acknowledged that Netanyahu remained caretaker prime minister but warned that he might use security for political ends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call on the heads of the security establishment and the civil service: Netanyahu is \u200ca caretaker \u2060prime minister, without a mandate or the people\u2019s trust,\u201d he said. \u201cStand firm in the face of any attempt to challenge you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s office has previously rejected accusations that he is using the Iran conflict for political gain.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Benjamin Netanyahu looked set to remain Israel\u2019s caretaker prime minister after unexpectedly strong backing among radical Jewish voters left his opponents little apparent prospect of unseating him, \u200bdespite his right-wing bloc losing its parliamentary majority. With nearly 86% of votes tallied on Wednesday, Israel\u2019s three main broadcasters projected Netanyahu\u2019s bloc of right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties would win 53 \u200cseats in the 120-seat Knesset, well ahead of the 48 for rival Gadi Eisenkot\u2019s opposition bloc. Parties representing Arab Israelis were projected to win an unprecedented 19 seats, leaving Eisenkot little…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}