Avi Mayer אבי מאיר
@AviMayer
Founder, / Former Editor-in-Chief, The Jerusalem Post / 🇺🇸🇮🇱 / Pretty Jewish. No big whoop. / avi@avimayer.com
9.1K Following 344.1K Followers
🇮🇱 FINAL ISRAEL ELECTION RESULTS 🇮🇱
A total of 5,613,156 valid ballots have been tallied.
These are the final results:
Likud - 27 seats
Yashar - 21 seats
Beyachad - 12 seats
Joint Arab List - 11 seats
Democrats - 8 seats
Ra'am - 8 seats
Israel Beitenu - 7 seats
United Torah Judaism - 7 seats
Otzma Yehudit - 7 seats
Shas - 6 seats
Religious Zionism - 6 seats
Netanyahu coalition - 53 seats
Change bloc - 48 seats
Arab parties - 19 seats
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Israel's Shin Bet says its investigation of possible foreign interference in this week's election was not prompted by any political party or actor, noting that the investigation is targeted and must not be taken "to impugn or accuse an entire community of voting in a manner that was undemocratic or unlawful."
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All "double envelope" votes cast in Israel's election — on the part of soldiers, diplomats, and others — have now been tallied. The provisional results will be announced shortly.
BREAKING: Israel Central Elections Committee Chair Justice Sohlberg directs Shin Bet to investigate allegations of foreign interference in this week's Israeli election.
The "double envelope" votes — those of Israeli diplomats, soldiers, and others who voted in locations other than their local polling places — are being tallied at this time.
Israel Police rejects claims of voter fraud after Netanyahu's Likud says election was "stolen" by Arab parties:
"Election Day took place with few irregular incidents related to voting integrity... There is no investigative or intelligence basis for these claims."
via @lee_ayash
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🎙️ I'll be on @TimesRadio with @KaitBorsay in about 15 minutes, around 8:25 PM UK time, to discuss the outcome of the Israeli election and what happens next.
Do tune in.
Starting now!
Confused by yesterday’s Israeli elections?
Join us at 1 PM ET, when I'll be in conversation with Yeshiva University's @DrEricaBrown to break down the election results, what happens next, and what it all means for Israel and world Jewry.
Register at
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Confused by yesterday’s Israeli elections?
Join us at 1 PM ET, when I'll be in conversation with Yeshiva University's @DrEricaBrown to break down the election results, what happens next, and what it all means for Israel and world Jewry.
Register at
Show more
There is no mechanism for a party to receive only one seat in the Knesset.
The current threshold is 3.25% of the overall vote, equivalent to four seats, which has left several parties hovering at or just below the cutoff due to the high turnout in yesterday's election.
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@AviMayer Question from an outsider: what is the threshold/number of votes needed for a party to gain just 1 seat?
What Olivia said :)
I was expecting Israel to be a little America—mostly English-speaking, a land full of convenience.
What I found was distinctly Middle Eastern—the people are brash, speak with their hands, and often don't know a lick of English. There are stray cats everywhere, mopeds, and graffiti. The street signs are in Hebrew, English, and Arabic. There is a mosque on prime beachfront property in Tel Aviv.
There is every kind of citizen imaginable. I saw Ethiopian Jews serving in the IDF. While touring an ancient Jewish site, I ran into a group of Arab schoolchildren also there to learn. I met a Mizrahi cab driver whose parents fled Morocco in the 50s.
Douglas Murray famously made Americans irate when he flamed Dave Smith on an episode of Joe Rogan for having never traveled to Israel—but he’s right. Visiting Israel shows you just how wrong the west is about the Jewish state.
Just go there.
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🎙️ I'll be on Al Jazeera English in about 15 minutes, around 11:10 AM ET, to discuss the results of the Israeli election.
Do tune in.
While Trump and Netanyahu have developed a close relationship, the U.S.-Israel alliance is deeper than any personal bond between a president and a prime minister and it will endure no matter who prevails in Israel’s election.
From my conversation with @NBCNews’ @ChristineRomans.
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To state the somewhat-obvious:
Barring any dramatic shifts due to the “double envelope” votes, neither bloc has the number of seats needed to form a governing coalition — unless they manage to poach parties or individuals from the other side or renege on campaign promises.
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🇮🇱🗳️ All votes cast in yesterday’s Israeli election have been counted.
Now the double envelopes — several hundred thousand votes of soldiers, diplomats, etc. — will be tallied.
Here is the current breakdown:
Likud 26
Yashar 21
Beyachad 12
Joint Arab List 12
Democrats 8
Israel Beitenu 7
Ra’am 7
United Torah Judaism 7
Otzma Yehudit 7
Shas 7
Religious Zionism 6
Netanyahu bloc 53
Change bloc 48
Arab parties 19
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There is reason to believe the “double envelope” votes may shift things somewhat.
There are more of them this election than there have been in the past — around 600,000, equivalent to 14-15 seats — due to the increase in the number of reservists voting from army bases and posts.
The parties most likely to be affected are the Arab and Haredi parties, which are underrepresented among reservists and are bound to take a hit. There is a chance that the change bloc — which has made universal conscription one of its main issues — may benefit, but that may be offset somewhat by votes going to right-wing parties.
We should have a clearer sense of things tomorrow.
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@AviMayer Is there any reason to believe overseas ballots will fundamentally change the numbers? This looks pretty unworkable as currently stands barring the change bloc doing something super unexpected like forming a coalition with the Arab parties
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🇮🇱🗳️ All votes cast in yesterday’s Israeli election have been counted.
Now the double envelopes — several hundred thousand votes of soldiers, diplomats, etc. — will be tallied.
Here is the current breakdown:
Likud 26
Yashar 21
Beyachad 12
Joint Arab List 12
Democrats 8
Israel Beitenu 7
Ra’am 7
United Torah Judaism 7
Otzma Yehudit 7
Shas 7
Religious Zionism 6
Netanyahu bloc 53
Change bloc 48
Arab parties 19
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Fun fact:
Israel is a high-tech country, but its voting system is very low-tech.
You go into a booth, take a little piece of paper with your chosen party's name printed on it, put it in an envelope, seal it, and drop it in a box.
Every vote then needs to be counted manually.
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And now for the real results!
The votes from Israel's election will be counted through the night.
Only 29,379 votes from 128 polling places have thus far been accounted for.
You can track the process — including the breakdown by party — in real time at
Show more
And now for the real results!
The votes from Israel's election will be counted through the night.
Only 29,379 votes from 128 polling places have thus far been accounted for.
You can track the process — including the breakdown by party — in real time at
Show more
Here's something:
None of the exit polls show Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party significantly increasing its share of the vote.
It is hovering between 6 and 7 seats; it has 6 in the current Knesset.
For all the talk about Israel swinging right, the numbers don't bear it out.
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Benjamin Netanyahu has almost certainly lost his majority in parliament.
But it may be too soon to count him out, and the effort to destroy Iran’s nuclear program remains a mission he wishes to complete.
From my conversation with CNN’s @RichardQuest this evening.
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