What did The Rest Is Politics say about Israel's election, Netanyahu and Arab turnout?

The hosts said Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud did slightly better than forecast, on course for about 27 seats against an expected 23. The bigger story was Arab turnout, which rose from 48% to 72% in Nazareth and could lift Arab parties toward 18 seats, leaving them as kingmakers. Because the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot ruled out working with Arab parties, the hosts expect a return to the deadlock of 2018 to 2022 and possibly another election.

• Israel's 3.5% threshold means a party such as Ra'am can win either about five seats or none.
• Analyst Gil Hoffman called it an election defined by animosity, while Dalia Scheindlin stressed that peace and Palestinian statehood were barely on the ballot.
• Yair Golan of the Democrats attacked the division of Jewish and Arab votes and noted 16 non-Zionist Haredi members in Netanyahu's own bloc.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on The Rest Is Politics (2026-10-28). Read the whole episode summary →

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