Final pre-election scramble: Arab turnout fears and coalition math

Netanyahu warns of 75% Arab turnout as Eisenkot rallies the change bloc, while police delete suspicious X accounts.

Final pre-election scramble: Arab turnout fears and coalition math — Less than two days before Israelis vote for the 26th Knesset, Benjamin Netanyahu told associates he is closely following pollster Yosef Maklada's data showing a surge to 75% turnout in Arab society — a forecast that could yield between 16 and 17 seats for Arab parties. The prime minister's closed-door concern was paired with a public message on Channel 14's 'The Patriots' program, where he declared: 'The left relies on draft dodgers, the right on fighters and those who serve.' [^1] The gap between the private worry and the public wedge suggests the Likud sees a high Arab vote as a direct threat to its coalition arithmetic. Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the Yashar party, delivered a campaign speech at his party's convention attended by thousands, warning that 'whoever thinks the change is guaranteed is wrong - it is in danger.' [^2] The warning lands against a backdrop of logistical complexity: the Central Elections Committee has printed 450 million ballots using 250 tons of paper, with 7,331,981 eligible citizens able to vote across 12,018 polling stations. [^3] Meanwhile, Israeli police announced Sunday they identified a network of suspicious accounts on X and deleted a number of them ahead of Tuesday's vote. [^4] The Achi party of Rabbi Avargel withdrew from the race a day before the elections after contacts with the Likud, a move that consolidates the right-wing vote but also reflects the pressure on smaller parties hovering around the electoral threshold. At the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv, a merchant captured the mood: 'They are all liars and cheats, no one is an exception.' The question now is whether the last hours of campaigning will shift the undecided — or whether the election will be decided by who stays home. Serbia's student protest movement upends Vučić's party dominance — Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić conceded on Sunday that his party lost the early parliamentary elections, a result that opens the door for the student protest movement to enter parliament after years of his dominance. [^1] Riot police established a security cordon near the election commission headquarters in