Watta Palaver

🇮🇱 Netanyahu loses his majority as Israel certifies election results Israel's Central Elections Committee has certified the October 27 election, leaving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc with 53 of 120 seats, eight short of a majority and down from 64 in 2022. The opposition bloc led by former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot won 48 seats, while Arab-led parties took a record 19, so neither bloc can form a government alone. The committee said it found no evidence of fraud, a blow to Netanyahu's camp. Likud had claimed, without evidence, that Arab-led parties "stole" the election with Qatari money, which Qatar rejects. Likud abstained from the certification, and Itamar Ben-Gvir's party opposed it. President Isaac Herzog has now begun talks on who should form the next government, and Eisenkot reportedly looks set to get the first shot. He would hold a 67-seat majority with the Arab-led parties, but has previously ruled out a coalition with them.