A speaker vote can precede a coalition agreement
Control of the speaker's office would give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's opponents influence over the parliamentary agenda, including votes, legislation and committee appointments. That would apply even if Netanyahu continued to lead a caretaker government.
The new parliament does not have to wait for coalition negotiations to conclude. According to The Times of Israel, the 26th Knesset is scheduled to be sworn in on November 10, 2026, while efforts to assemble a government are expected to be difficult and could last more than two months.
Choosing a speaker by open vote is among a new Knesset's first tasks. The opposition would need a majority of the chamber's 120 members to support one candidate, potentially drawing on votes from Arab parties. Ynetnews reported that a 2020 Supreme Court ruling requires a vote on electing a speaker if 61 lawmakers demand one, whether or not a government has been formed.
Names under consideration include three Yashar lawmakers, Chili Tropper, Matan Kahana and Elazar Stern; B'Yachad's Merav Ben-Ari and Eitan Ginzburg; Efrat Rayten of the Democrats; and Yisrael Beytenu's Oded Forer. KAN News reported on Wednesday that bloc leaders were also considering Yair Lapid.
Election results leave neither bloc with a majority
Final results published by Israel's Central Elections Committee early Friday, October 30, put the pro-Netanyahu bloc at 53 seats and the anti-Netanyahu bloc at 48, with the Arab factions holding 19, The Times of Israel reported. The Netanyahu bloc had held 68 seats in the outgoing parliament.
Likud won 27 seats, followed by Yashar with 21, B'Yachad with 12 and the Joint List with 11. The Democrats and Ra'am each won eight; Yisrael Beytenu, United Torah Judaism and Otzma Yehudit each took seven; and Shas and Religious Zionism each secured six. Turnout reached 77.9% of eligible voters, with 5,716,665 votes cast, the highest level in decades.
The combined 19 seats won by the Arab-led Joint List and Ra'am set a record, nearly doubling their 10 seats in the outgoing Knesset.
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman said this week that support for replacing Ohana could also come from the outgoing coalition. He estimated that up to a third of its lawmakers might vote against the speaker.
United Torah Judaism is weighing an abstention if the new Knesset votes on removing Ohana, according to Ynetnews. The ultra-Orthodox party has traditionally sided with Netanyahu, but some of its lawmakers have pre-existing tensions with Ohana. Shas, by contrast, signaled continued loyalty: a party official said chairman Aryeh Deri did not intend to leave the bloc.
Netanyahu's associates plan to resist the effort to replace the speaker and mount an extensive political campaign challenging its public legitimacy, Ynetnews reported.
Arab leaders offer cooperation but object to exclusion
The Joint List, an alliance of predominantly Arab parties, said on Wednesday, the day after the election, that it was prepared to work with the opposition. Its leaders nevertheless felt insulted that opposition leaders had not approached them about negotiations for the next government, KAN News reported.
"We are ready and prepared to pave the way for ousting the Netanyahu government," Joint List chairman Prof. Yousef Jabareen said. He called for an alternative to bloodshed, supremacy, racism and exclusion, adding: "Change goes through Jewish-Arab partnership, a real and equal partnership. Nothing less than that, and nothing more than that."
Ofer Cassif, a Knesset member ranked fifth on the Joint List's slate, described the choice as removing the government and beginning repairs or continuing the horrors of the previous four years. He said the party was committed to repair and challenged the opposition to act. "The ball is in their court," he said.
Cooperation would not mean joining the coalition, according to Joint List leader Ahmad Tibi. In a Saturday interview on "Meet the Press," he said: "We will not be a part of the government." Tibi said he and his fellow party members wanted to make coalition formation "easier, not harder."
Eisenkot sets terms as alliance talks continue
Alongside the push for a new speaker, senior figures in the change bloc are seeking a center-right alliance bringing together Naftali Bennett's B'Yachad, Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu and Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar, Ynetnews reported. Whether to include Yair Golan's left-leaning Democrats remains under debate.
Eisenkot outlined his priorities on Saturday: securing a parliamentary majority through negotiations, establishing an October 7 Commission of Inquiry, introducing compulsory military service for everyone and repealing the judicial reform laws.
"Every Knesset member who is willing to sign on to these principles is a potential partner on the path to establishing a new and better government for Israel," he wrote on X. He said the government he intended to form would be open to any public representative who accepted those principles and was ready to act.
