Israel's election of 27 October 2026 ended with two victory speeches. In Tel Aviv, Gadi Eisenkot said "the public has decided in favor of change". Hours later in Jerusalem, Benjamin Netanyahu said Likud is the largest party and his bloc has "a clear, decisive majority among the Zionist and Jewish public". With every regular ballot box counted, the Netanyahu-led bloc had 53 seats, the Eisenkot-led bloc 48 and Arab-led parties 19, so neither bloc had the 61 needed for a majority. The soldiers' double-envelope ballots were still being counted when we published; the result will be added to the pinned comment (Central Elections Committee, preliminary).
CHAPTERS
0:00 Who won Israel's election?
0:35 Election night: Eisenkot and Netanyahu both claim it
2:54 How Israelis vote: paper slips and a 3.25% threshold
4:09 A record for Arab-led parties, and a fraud claim
6:11 The 61st seat: every road to a Knesset majority
8:17 Double envelopes: soldiers' ballots and a reservists' party
9:52 What happens next: Herzog, the mandate, a new election?
SOURCES: Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, Walla, Ynet, Maariv, The Media Line, Ha-Makom, Al Jazeera, Law Library of Congress and others; full source list with links under the YouTube video: https://youtu.be/QDUqzE2AORw
CREDITS (full list with links in the pinned comment)
Footage, cropped/panned/trimmed:
CC BY 4.0: Nizzan Cohen (2026 election day)
CC BY 3.0: i24NEWS English (video)
CC BY 2.0: UK Government (Netanyahu portrait); U.S. Embassy Jerusalem (Knesset plenum); israeltourism (Supreme Court)
CC BY-SA 4.0: Ronen Horesh/Knesset Archives (Eisenkot portrait); Shlomi Amsalem/Knesset Archives (Ben Gvir); Itzhak Harari (Hendel); Avreymaleh (Nir Oz); Laliv g (2019 ballots); Fallaner (Supreme Court, Nazareth); Hanay (Nesher); Clema12 (Knesset); دانية عيد (Nazareth video)
CC BY-SA 3.0: Kobi Gideon/GPO and Mark Neyman/GPO (2021-22 elections, Beit HaNassi); IDF Spokesperson's Unit (2021 vote); Michael Jacobson (Binyanei HaUma); Hanay (2022 polling place)
CC0/PD: Gary Todd, Rakoon, כיכר השבת
Licences: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 · /by/3.0 · /by/2.0 · /by-sa/4.0 · /by-sa/3.0
3D model "Executive chair" by lintovattoly (CC BY, Sketchfab). Poly Haven, ambientCG (CC0).
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Sentinel-2 cloudless by EOX IT Services GmbH, CC BY 4.0 (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016). Terrain: Mapzen/AWS Terrain Tiles (SRTM: NASA; GMTED2010: USGS; ETOPO1: NOAA).
3D reconstructions, original score and sound design by Debrief. The 3D scenes are illustrations built from the reporting above, not footage.
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