Netanyahu Faces Yashar in Tight Knesset Race

Voters in Israel began casting ballots Tuesday morning to determine the composition of the next Knesset.

Polling stations opened at 7:00 a.m. local time, marking the start of a nationwide vote that will select 120 members of parliament.

Exit polls are scheduled for release at 10:00 p.m., providing early projections of the outcome, though final official results will take several days to confirm.

The race pits Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition against an opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party.

Recent surveys indicate Yashar has taken the lead in support over Netanyahu’s Likud party in most recent polling.

However, neither side appears capable of securing the 61 seats required for a majority on their own.

The Channel 12 poll released Friday showed the opposition bloc at 56 seats and Netanyahu’s bloc at 50 seats.

Arab parties were projected to win a combined 16 seats in that survey.

Yashar is projected to win 22 seats, followed by Likud at 19 and B’Yachad, led by Naftali Bennett, at 14.

Likud’s projected count is down from the 32 seats it holds in the current government.

The election is the first held since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

Voters are weighing issues such as the Israel Defense Forces manpower shortage and the conscription of ultra-Orthodox men, known as haredim, into the military draft law negotiations have stalled on these topics for years, and a state commission of inquiry into the government's failures on October 7 remains a central demand from the opposition, who argue Netanyahu should no longer lead the country after 19 non-consecutive years in power, traditional issues like the establishment of a Palestinian state have receded, as most major parties now oppose statehood, voter turnout will determine the threshold for entering parliament, set at 3.25% of valid votes, the Taub Center estimates a party needs 165,635 votes to clear this bar if turnout mirrors the 2022 election, this number rises as turnout increases, making it harder for smaller parties to gain representation, several groups are fighting to stay above the line, including Ofer Winter’s People of Israel party and Yoaz Hendel’s Reservists-Economics party, police have deployed approximately 20,000 officers and volunteers across the country to maintain order, forces are stationed at thousands of polling stations to safeguard the process, the police said the deployment aims to ensure the democratic process is conducted in accordance with the law.