The Chairman of the Democrats, Yair Golan, rushed on Wednesday morning to declare that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had lost the elections for the 26th Knesset, citing a theoretical parliamentary majority anchored in the seats of the Joint List and Ra’am. “Netanyahu lost. I know how to count to 120. 65 is more than 55. That is how Israeli democracy works. Period,” Golan declared, attempting to cement a narrative of victory before counting operations advanced.
However, Golan’s declaration was almost immediately undercut by updated verified tallies from the Central Elections Committee. As counting progressed, the figures upon which Golan based his claim shifted substantially. The governing coalition expanded to 56 mandates, while the so-called “change bloc” slipped to 48 mandates, with 12 seats for Hadash-Ta’al and four for Ra’am.
2+The updated numbers also saw Golan’s own Democrats faction drop to eight seats, while Likud advanced to 28 mandates. Under these verified metrics, the theoretical combination of the opposition and Arab factions stood at 64 seats—not the 65 Golan proclaimed.
Throughout his address, Golan sought to erase the distinction between Zionist political parties and non-Zionist Arab lists, framing any critique of reliance on anti-Zionist factions as improper. “The vote of an Israeli citizen voting in Tira is equal to the vote of an Israeli citizen voting in Givat Shmuel,” Golan asserted, accusing the prime minister of “racism.”
2+Meanwhile, Golan launched a sharp verbal assault against the ultra-Orthodox parties. While extending full legitimacy to Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am as prospective coalition cornerstones, he sought to disenfranchise the representation of hundreds of thousands of religious citizens by branding Shas and United Torah Judaism as outside the Zionist consensus.
“In Netanyahu’s bloc sit 16 Knesset members from non-Zionist Haredi parties,” Golan claimed, asserting that the opposition held an artificial “Zionist majority” of 49 to 39. That arithmetic likewise unraveled under verified counts, where UTJ and Shas held 15 seats combined, shifting the ratio to 48 against 41 under Golan’s own selective standard. Golan issued a direct call for a joint administration: “We have a majority. We have responsibility. And we have an opportunity to establish a change government in partnership with Israel’s Arab citizens.”
2+Political strategists noted that Golan’s pronouncements remain entirely premature. With extensive portions of regular ballots still entering the central registry and the decisive volume of external double envelopes—comprising active-duty IDF combat troops, security personnel, and frontline units—yet to be tallied and audited, the final mandate allocation and bloc balance of the 26th Knesset remain unresolved.