Golan Says Netanyahu Bloc Lost Election, Urges Opposition to Partner With Arab Parties
Democrats chairman Yair Golan argued that the opposition, counting Arab parties, holds 65 seats and should form a government of change.
By Liam Kaminski ·
Yair Golan, chairman of the Democrats, declared on Wednesday that the bloc led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lost the 2026 Knesset election. He said the opposition reaches 65 seats once Arab parties are counted, and he urged opposition leaders to bring those parties into a governing coalition.
In a post written Wednesday morning, Golan was blunt about the arithmetic. "Netanyahu lost. I know how to count to 120. 65 is more than 55. That's how Israeli democracy works. Period," he wrote.
Golan also addressed any idea Netanyahu might have of assembling a Zionist bloc. In that case, he said, the prime minister should "subtract from his own bloc the 16 Knesset members from the non-Zionist Haredi parties."
He framed the result as both a mandate and a duty. "We have a majority. We have responsibility. And we have an opportunity to form a government of change in partnership with Israel's Arab citizens. A government that will serve all Israeli citizens," Golan wrote.
MK Gilad Kariv, also of the Democrats, echoed the message, saying Israel woke up to a "different political reality" the morning after the vote. Writing on X, he said the fully right-wing coalition had lost quite a few seats and would most likely be unable to form a government in a similar configuration.
Kariv said the opposition had grown stronger, both in its representation of the liberal Jewish public and in its representation of the Arab public. He argued that a substantial majority, by a margin of hundreds of thousands of votes, had voted against Netanyahu. He added that Netanyahu and his partners must not be allowed to keep leading the country down what he called a destructive path over the past four years.
The comments follow projections based on Central Elections Committee data that the Arab parties Ra'am and the Joint List will win six and 12 seats respectively. The committee's figures also show the opposition bloc made up of Yashar, B'Yachad, Yisrael Beytenu and the Democrats entering the Knesset with 47 seats.
According to the same data, Golan's Democrats are projected to win nine seats in the 2026 election.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
