Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to undermine the election results. In remarks published Monday, Lapid said the only reason is that Netanyahu lost.
1+“There’s only one reason Netanyahu and his proxies are doing everything to undermine the election results: they lost,” Lapid wrote.
According to Lapid, Netanyahu and his people are “protesting, inventing conspiracy theories, and challenging the results of democratic elections.” Lapid noted that Shin Bet chief David Zini and Judge Noam Solberg both supported the position that the suspicions being investigated don’t change the election results.
1+“This is an attempt to cancel Israeli democracy, and we won’t let it happen,” Lapid wrote. “In a democratic country, the winners form a government, and the losers go to the opposition. That’s what will happen.”
The Suspicions Were Defined as Serious
Contrary to the impression from Lapid’s remarks, the investigation wasn’t opened following a claim invented by Likud. Judge Solberg ordered an examination of classified information that raised suspicions of funding from foreign sources, intended to influence the election and potentially having a security dimension. Solberg described the suspicions as “serious” and announced that a joint team from the Shin Bet, police, and the prosecutor’s office would continue investigating. At the same time, he ruled that the existing evidence doesn’t undermine the election results overall, and that even if the suspicions are confirmed, it wouldn’t invalidate the entire process.
Likud attacked the ruling even before the investigation concluded. The party argued that only 4,612 votes separated Ra’am’s eighth seat from transferring a seat to the right-wing bloc. Therefore, one cannot determine in advance that the investigation’s findings will not affect seat distribution. According to the Central Elections Committee, it will publish official results by Wednesday, November 4. Until then, control corrections can still be made, including fixing typing or transcription errors discovered during ballot box verification.