The negotiation that Netanyahu is trying to win

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has doubled down on accusations of foreign interference in last week’s election, despite calls for compromise from the president.

More than a week after Israel’s first election since Hamas’ October 7 attacks in 2023, Israeli President Isaac Herzog began meeting party leaders to decide whether to give Netanyahu or his rival Gadi Eisenkot the first chance to form a government in the deeply polarised country.

Eisenkot, who won the endorsement of a major Arab party, vowed to “deepen” the United States-Israel partnership across bipartisan lines and to work with US President Donald Trump to stabilise the region if selected as prime minister.

Netanyahu meanwhile pointed to “serious suspicions that foreign states have spent considerable sums to influence the outcome of the elections in Israel”.

The prime minister has gone on the offensive against Arab-majority lists, who have the power to put Eisenkot in power if they team up.

Netanyahu has pointed to the arrests of several people with envelopes of cash on election day in what authorities called localised incidents, and accused leaders of accepting money from Qatar, an allegation also levelled against the prime minister’s own aides.

With neither bloc holding a majority in the 120-seat parliament after the 27 October vote, Herzog said both sides needed to accept that “not every commitment and promise can be fulfilled” and to avoid new elections.

“In the current reality, in which there is no clear winner after the elections, I ask for originality and creativity, courage and goodwill, so that the State of Israel emerges the winner,” Herzog said.

The election saw soaring support for lists from the Arab minority, descendants of Palestinians who stayed in Israel after its 1948 creation and who have often been outraged by the harsh rhetoric and actions of Netanyahu’s hard-right government.

Without naming any leader, Herzog, whose role is usually ceremonial, said he had “great respect” for the Arab minority, which makes up around 20 per cent of Israel’s population.

“I condemn the coarseness and racist expressions that we have heard recently,” he said.

US-Israel partnership

Eisenkot, a former military chief who has vowed to turn the page on Netanyahu’s long, divisive reign, meanwhile vowed to “renew and deepen” Israel’s partnership with the US and “strengthen the bipartisan foundations that have long sustained it”.

“I look forward to working closely and constructively with President Trump and his administration,” he continued on X.

“Together, we can advance our shared security interests, strengthen regional stability, and open new doors to prosperity for the peoples of the Middle East.”

His remarks follow criticism after Trump announced that he had agreed with Netanyahu to end nearly $US4 billion ($5.6 billion) in annual US military aid to Israel by the end of the year.

A leading Arab-Israeli party, Raam, officially endorsed Eisenkot to form a new government, ahead of a meeting with Herzog.

Eisenkot has warned Netanyahu against launching a new war with Trump against Iran, which could help the Israeli prime minister push for a unity government or to run out the clock until new elections.

Opposition politicians said the midterm elections in the US, in which Democrats trounced Trump’s Republicans, reinforced the need to remove Netanyahu.

Democrats have vowed a tougher line on Israel amid outrage over the devastation wrought by the war in Gaza.

“The continued tenure of Netanyahu and (Itamar) Ben-Gvir could lead Israel down a path of international sanctions, international isolation and a clash with the US,” said Yair Golan, who heads the most left-wing party within the opposition bloc.

Arab-Israeli alliance calls claims ‘persecution’

The largest Arab-Israeli bloc has denounced the accusations as “political persecution”.

“The targeting of Ayman Odeh is political persecution, and we will not allow the Arab public’s vote to be delegitimised,” the Joint List, a coalition of three Arab-Israeli parties, said in a statement.

“Netanyahu is clinging to power and refusing to acknowledge the will of Arab citizens who voted overwhelmingly against his government,” it added.

Odeh, an outgoing lawmaker and former leader of the Joint List, is to be investigated as part of a probe into claims of foreign election interference pushed by Netanyahu’s Likud party, several Israeli media reports said.

A veteran of Israeli politics, Odeh used to lead the left-wing party Hadash, which is part of the Joint List.

The Central Elections Committee said it had conducted an audit of 9,069 polling stations following complaints and found no evidence to question the integrity of the results.

The committee, which reflects the makeup of the outgoing parliament, approved the results with 15 members in favour and two against. Fourteen others abstained.

Ben-Gvir, the ultranationalist national security minister known for his provocative calls for Palestinian suffering, said his party did not accept the results and urged the arrest of Arab-Israeli party leaders.

Eisenkot accused the prime minister of trying to “undermine Israeli democracy” and inflame sentiment against elected officials.

“We will not allow the State of Israel to be dragged into a dark abyss, far beyond the bounds of democratic conduct,” Eisenkot said, as he marked the 1995 assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Herzog will hold an initial two days of consultations and then give a contender 28 days to form a government, with a potential 14-day extension.

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