Protesters rally outside Eisenkot's home with calls to include Arab parties in coalition

Protesters gathered outside Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot's home in Herzliya on Thursday, urging him to form a government with Arab parties after the election left neither bloc with a majority. Netanyahu's bloc won 53 seats, opposition parties 48, and Arab parties 19. Eisenkot met Bennett and Golan; Golan met Ra'am chairman Abbas.

Protesters gathered outside Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot's home in Herzliya on Thursday, urging the opposition leader to form a government with Arab parties following the release of Israel's election results, which left neither political bloc with a Knesset majority. The demonstrators chanted, "There is no change without partnership," calling on Eisenkot to cooperate with Arab parties to prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from forming another government. Among those attending was Amir Badran, deputy mayor of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, who expressed support for a political partnership between the opposition and Arab parties. The completed vote count left Netanyahu's bloc with 53 seats, compared with 48 for the four main opposition parties, 13 short of the 61 seats required for a parliamentary majority. Eisenkot's Yashar emerged as the largest opposition party with 21 seats, behind Netanyahu's Likud, which secured 27. The Joint List secured 11 seats, while Mansour Abbas's Ra'am won eight, bringing the Arab parties to a combined record 19 seats. For Eisenkot and his opposition allies to fulfill their campaign pledge not to join a Netanyahu-led government, cooperation with at least some of the Arab parties would likely be necessary. However, substantial political obstacles remain, particularly opposition from Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, whose party secured seven seats. Liberman has reportedly distanced himself from his opposition allies and has rejected both joining a coalition with Arab parties and forming a minority government dependent on their support. Eisenkot met with B'Yachad chairman Naftali Bennett on Thursday, as well as Democrats chairman Yair Golan, as negotiations over the formation of the next government began taking shape. Golan also met with Ra'am chairman Mansour Abbas on Thursday to discuss building a political partnership.