Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition lost its parliamentary majority in Tuesday's Knesset elections, and his response was immediate: accuse Arab Israeli voters of stealing the result with foreign money. The prime minister called on Shin Bet to investigate alleged vote-buying in Palestinian communities, posting a Likud statement warning of "the Islamisation of Israel" and "the overthrow of rightwing rule." The claims were rejected by police, the central elections committee, and President Isaac Herzog, who urged leaders to stop "tarnishing an entire community." The numbers tell the story of why Netanyahu is alarmed. Final results show his bloc winning 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset — short of the 61 needed for a majority. Gadi Eisenkot's opposition Change bloc took 48 seats. The Joint List and Ra'am, the two Arab Israeli parties, won 19 seats combined, a historic high for a community that constitutes roughly a fifth of Israel's population. Those 19 seats now hold the balance of power. The strategic target of Netanyahu's campaign is not the Arab parties themselves but the potential for tactical cooperation between Eisenkot's bloc and the Arab parties. Together they could unseat Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, a Likud politician and former Shin Bet official, and advance legislation including a commission of inquiry into the security failures leading to the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 — something Netanyahu has blocked for two years. Ahmad Tibi of the Joint List said plainly: "This entire campaign is directed against Eisenkot, to prevent him, intimidate and scare him off forming a government that relies on external support." The record Arab turnout appears to have been driven by concrete grievances — routine discrimination and fear that far-right coalition members Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich would secure another term. On Thursday, Ben-Gvir called for the arrest of Arab party leaders, and Smotrich demanded they be subjected to Shin Bet interrogation. Reports from Nazareth described brisk voting with few irregularities, though some ballot packets arrived in Hebrew alone rather than Hebrew and Arabic, and monitors from far-right parties attempted procedural ploys to slow voting. The Qatar angle adds a layer of irony that even Netanyahu's former allies have noted. Press reports named Qatar as the alleged foreign funder of vote-buying, but Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister now in the Change bloc, pointed out that Netanyahu's own political advisers are accused of taking Qatari money to promote the Gulf monarchy's image. Qatar's government categorically denied involvement in the elections. The central elections committee's acting director general, Dean Livneh, said there appeared to be no basis for the claims. Police officials across the Israeli press called the allegations groundless and said voting had been relatively trouble-free. Joint List leader Yousef Jabareen accused Netanyahu of incitement: "Netanyahu was defeated at the ballot box. He refuses to come to terms with the fact that the Arab public voted and decided." Eisenkot insisted that any investigation should proceed "without fear or favour" but that it cannot be used to delay the swearing-in of the new Knesset, which is constitutionally due within 14 days of the election. The next two weeks will determine whether Netanyahu's delegitimization campaign succeeds in preventing the cross-bloc cooperation that could end his 19-year grip on Israeli politics.
