Once the dust settled, it transpired that the outcome of the Sept. 17 elections and the resulting political deadlock could not have been more complex. However, with the final voting tally published Sept. 24, it turned out that the imbroglio was even worse, with the ruling Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gaining an additional Knesset seat for a total of 32, and the ultra-Orthodox Yahadut HaTorah party going down one seat to seven in all. That precludes the option that Blue and White leader Benny Gantz (33 Knesset seats) would form Israel’s next government with the ultra-Orthodox parties but without the Likud. Such a combination would not offer Gantz the 61-seat majority he needs.
This deepening entanglement could lead Israel to one of the strangest and most intransigent crises in its history: a constitutional deadlock, with no candidate able to form a government, requiring yet another election, the third in just over a year. This scenario, which would have seemed unimaginable just a few months ago, is emerging before our eyes.
