Netanyahu, Eisenkot stake rival claims to lead Israel after deadlocked vote

By Steven Scheer, Rami Ayyub and Lina Obeid

JERUSALEM, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rival Gadi Eisenkot offered competing claims to lead Israel after Tuesday's election, withNetanyahu calling for a right-wing government and Eisenkot saying voters had rejected the longtime Israeli leader, even as early counting showed no clear winner.

Israel's Central Elections Committee was tallying votes on Wednesday and it will likely take until Thursday before definitive results of the election - the first since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023 - are known.

With some 48.4% of votes tallied, Netanyahu's bloc was projected to win 55 seats, and Eisenkot's bloc 50 seats, with 15 seats going to Arab parties, Israeli media reported, a distribution will likely change as more votes are tallied.

That leaves both sides short of the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, and neitherNetanyahu norEisenkot claimed victory.

While the projected results may represent a setback for Netanyahu and his nationalist-religious coalition, adeadlock could work in his favour, leaving the 77-year-old in office as a caretaker prime minister during what are likely to be prolonged coalition negotiations or even until another election can be held.

Netanyahu's bloc rules out forming a government with Arab parties, which themselves campaigned on a platform of bringing down the prime minister and his far-right allies. Eisenkot, the leader of theYashar party and a former military chief, has all but ruled out forming a government with Arab parties, complicating his path to power.

Far-right religious parties led by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich were projected to take a combined 13 seats within Netanyahu's bloc – with no major gains for either of them.

SECURITY FIGHT SHARPENS

Netanyahu, addressing party faithful after 3 a.m. (0100 GMT) atLikud election headquarters in Jerusalem, called for the formation of “a strong, right-wing national government.”

He also highlighted Israel's military successes and raised the prospect of renewed joint action with US President Donald Trump against Iran.

"Israel faces a singular historical opportunity, together with our partner President Trump, to remove the existential threat of Iran once and for all. But ulterior motives must not divert us from this sacred mission," he said.

Trump, who endorsed Netanyahu, was asked early on Wednesday about the election after a campaign trip to Texas, and said hedid very well.

"You know, it's pretty close, which was very well. Because I think when the endorsement went out, it helped him a lot, but I actually heard he did pretty well. It might be winning or tie. The tie is sort of considered a win in that case because it's a big chess match.”

Eisenkotsaid the public had voted against Netanyahu remaining prime minister and urged him to retire from politics, while warning against the use of Israel's security for political purposes.

“Netanyahu is a caretaker prime minister, without a mandate or the people's trust,” Eisenkot said, calling on the security establishment to “stand firm” against any attempt to put political interests ahead of Israel's security.

Voter turnout was 77.7%, Israel's Central Elections Committee said, the highest in more than two decades and around 7 percentage points higher than in 2022.

Israel's fragmented political system leaves smaller parties potential kingmakers in coalition negotiations that have run to weeks or months after past elections. If neither bloc can form a government, another vote may need to be held, something Eisenkot opposed given the high voter turnout.

The Israeli shekel weakened modestly on the indecisive result.

NETANYAHU SETBACK, NO CLEAR WINNER

If projections hold, Netanyahu's right-wing bloc, which at its height held 68 seats, would fall short of the 61 needed to govern, leaving him with no clear path to forming a government.

Eisenkot, 66, who lost a son and two nephews in the Gaza war, emerged asNetanyahu's strongest challenger, stressing his security credentials while positioning himself as a centrist domestically.

He entered politics only four years ago and joinedNetanyahu's war cabinet after the 2023 Hamas attack, but quit eight months later, criticising the prime minister's leadership.

Eisenkot offers a break with Netanyahu's leadership and far-right allies, but not with the hawkishapproach to security that has become more entrenched since the 2023 Hamas attack. He opposes Palestinian statehood and says Hamas' military wing must be destroyed or dismantled.

Eisenkot says Israel's response — a war that has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities — was a failure because Hamas remains in charge.

The headquarters of the Joint List, an alliance of several Arab parties, burst into whistles and applause when exit polls were released, on a historic night for turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel.

“We refuse the occupation and racism, and we will remain here,” said Faten Gattas, a candidate in the Joint List, in a speech at the alliance’s headquarters in Nazareth. Candidates hoped high Arab turnout would allow them to play a decisive role in blocking Netanyahu's coalition from returning to power.

A WARTIME VERDICT

Voters grappled with the trauma of Israel's deadliest day, when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, and the wars in Gaza and with Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iran that followed.

While Netanyahu was criticised for the country's biggest security failure, he argued that he had made Israel and the world safer by killing top leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

The policies ofNetanyahu's right-wing coalition have been divisive at home and deepened Israel's international isolation, but he has portrayed himself as the leader with the mettle to face down Israel's foes.

Netanyahu, 77, has served as prime minister for nearly 19 of the past 30 years and has repeatedly survived political crises. His opponents have managed to wrest the premiership from him only once since 2009, after four inconclusive elections in two years. Eighteen months later, he was back.

He entered the election facing long-standing corruption charges, which he denies, and criticism over intelligence failures that allowed Hamas-led militants to carry out their attack.

(Additional reporting by Rami Ayyub and Alexander Cornwell in Jerusalem; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Howard Goller and Raju Gopalakrishnan)