Israel’s Herzog accepts vote results, opens talks on forming a government

Move deals blow to Netanyahu’s efforts to discredit the elections, in which he and his allies lost their majority.

Netanyahu: letting Arab parties into gov’t will ‘dismantle’ Israel

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog has accepted the certified results of last week’s parliamentary elections and begun consultations with party leaders on whom to task with forming the next government.

The moves on Wednesday dealt a blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to discredit the vote, in which he and his allies lost their majority in the 120-member parliament, while Arab-led parties made historic gains.

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“The elections are over. Now is the time to face reality,” Herzog said.

In the October 27 vote, neither Netanyahu’s coalition nor the bloc of his chief rival, opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot, secured the 61 seats required to govern. The prime minister’s coalition won 53, while Eisonkot’s got 48.

That leaves open the possibility of an alliance between the two men or an alliance between Eisenkot and the Arab-led parties – Ra’am and the Joint List – which had secured a record 19 seats.

Herzog began his consultations with party leaders on Wednesday night.

Three factions aligned with Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist base recommended that he be given a chance to form a coalition, while a fourth, led by a former Netanyahu ally turned rival, backed Eisenkot.

Eight more parties, including the two Arab-led factions, are scheduled to meet with the president on Thursday, with Eisenkot’s Yashar party and Netanyahu’s Likud going last.

Ra’am backs Eisenkot

Eisenkot’s prospects improved when Ra’am, a major Arab-led party, said it would recommend him. That brought his expected support to 56 lawmakers, according to the Israeli news site Ynet, which is still short of a majority.

The other Arab-led party, the Joint List, has not announced its position. Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the party was expected to coordinate with Eisenkot, endorsing him if asked or abstaining if he preferred. Its 11 seats could push him past 61.

Netanyahu’s 53-seat bloc, by contrast, may not yield 53 endorsements.

Degel HaTorah, which holds four of United Torah Judaism’s seven seats, said it would recommend neither candidate. The ultra-Orthodox faction broke with Netanyahu over his coalition’s failure to pass legislation exempting Haredi men from military service, The Times of Israel reported.

Once the consultations end, Herzog will choose the candidate he considers best placed to assemble a coalition, almost certainly Netanyahu or Eisenkot. He has several days to announce his decision, after which the nominee will have 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension.

If neither man succeeds, Israel would hold another election early next year.

‘No evidence of irregularities’

Netanyahu and his supporters meanwhile have repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims that the Arab-led parties had “stolen” the election, possibly with foreign assistance.

But Israel’s elections commission said earlier on Wednesday that it had conducted a thorough investigation of all parties’ claims of fraud and found “no evidence of irregularities that compromised the integrity of the election or affected its results”.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara also rejected a request to question elected officials without supporting evidence.

Herzog urged both camps to compromise to avoid a new election, saying they must accept that “not every commitment and promise can be fulfilled”.

“In the current reality, in which there is no clear winner after the elections, I ask for originality and creativity, courage and goodwill, so that the State of Israel emerges the winner,” he said.

He also backed investigating the suspected interference but warned against smearing Palestinian-Israeli voters, saying he had “great respect” for Israel’s Palestinian minority, which makes up about 20 percent of the population.

“I condemn the coarseness and racist expressions that we have heard recently,” he said.

此举打击了内塔尼亚胡抹黑选举的努力，他在选举中及其盟友失去了多数席位。

内塔尼亚胡：允许阿拉伯政党进入政府将“瓦解”以色列

以色列总统伊萨克·赫尔佐格已接受上周议会选举的认证结果，并开始与各党派领导人磋商，以确定组建下一届政府的负责人。

周三的这些举措打击了总理本杰明·内塔尼亚胡试图抹黑选举结果的努力。在这次选举中，他和他的盟友失去了在120个席位的议会中的多数席位，而阿拉伯领导的政党则取得了历史性的胜利。

列表 1/4 以色列投票支持以色列：为什么加沙没有出现在选票上

以色列官员称选举结果有效，内塔尼亚胡则声称选举“被窃取”。

四个阿拉伯政党中有三个支持艾森科特：以色列组阁谈判的最新进展如何？

以色列选举相关问题之四：政府何时组建？谁将领导政府？

“选举已经结束了。现在是时候面对现实了。”赫尔佐格说道。

在10月27日的选举中，内塔尼亚胡的执政联盟和他的主要竞争对手、反对派领导人加迪·艾森科特的联盟均未获得执政所需的61个席位。总理的联盟赢得了53个席位，而艾森科特的联盟获得了48个席位。

这使得两人结盟或艾森科特与阿拉伯人领导的政党——拉姆党和联合名单党——结盟的可能性依然存在，这两个政党曾创纪录地获得了 19 个席位。

赫尔佐格于周三晚间开始与各党派领导人进行磋商。

与内塔尼亚胡的宗教民族主义支持者结盟的三个派别建议给他一个组建联合政府的机会，而由内塔尼亚胡的前盟友、后来的竞争对手领导的第四个派别则支持艾森科特。

包括两个阿拉伯人领导的派别在内的另外八个政党计划于周四与总统会面，艾森科特的亚沙尔党和内塔尼亚胡的利库德集团最后会面。

拉姆支持艾森科特

当主要阿拉伯政党拉姆党表示将推荐艾森科特时，他的前景有所改善。据以色列新闻网站Ynet报道，这使他获得了56名议员的支持，但仍未达到多数席位。

另一个由阿拉伯人领导的政党——联合名单党——尚未宣布立场。以色列第12频道报道称，该党预计将与艾森科特协调，如果艾森科特要求，该党将支持他；如果艾森科特本人愿意，该党将弃权。联合名单党拥有11个席位，可能使艾森科特的席位超过61个。

相比之下，内塔尼亚胡的 53 席联盟可能无法获得 53 个支持。

拥有联合托拉犹太教七个席位中四个席位的德格尔·哈托拉（Degel HaTorah）表示，他们不会推荐任何一位候选人。据《以色列时报》报道，这个极端正统派派别因内塔尼亚胡领导的联合政府未能通过豁免哈雷迪男子兵役的法案而与其决裂。

磋商结束后，赫尔佐格将选择他认为最适合组建联合政府的候选人，几乎可以肯定是内塔尼亚胡或艾森科特。他有几天时间宣布决定，之后被提名人将有28天时间组建政府，并有可能延长14天。

如果两人都未能当选，以色列将于明年初再次举行选举。

“未发现违规行为”

与此同时，内塔尼亚胡及其支持者一再毫无根据地声称，阿拉伯政党“窃取”了选举，可能还得到了外国的帮助。

但以色列选举委员会周三早些时候表示，已对各方提出的舞弊指控进行了彻底调查，发现“没有证据表明存在损害选举公正性或影响选举结果的违规行为”。

总检察长加利·巴哈拉夫-米亚拉也拒绝了在没有证据支持的情况下质询民选官员的请求。

赫尔佐格敦促双方阵营做出妥协，以避免重新选举，并表示他们必须接受“并非所有承诺都能兑现”这一事实。

他说：“在当前选举后没有明确赢家的现实情况下，我呼吁大家发挥创造力、展现勇气和善意，使以色列国最终获胜。”

他还支持调查涉嫌干预选举的行为，但警告不要抹黑巴勒斯坦裔以色列选民，并表示他“非常尊重”占以色列人口约 20% 的巴勒斯坦少数族裔。

他说：“我谴责最近我们听到的粗俗和种族主义言论。”