Israel’s election dispute escalated Thursday after the Central Elections Committee chairman directed the Shin Bet to investigate suspected foreign interference.
The development added a national security inquiry to a vote count that still left Benjamin Netanyahu without a governing majority.
Justice Noam Sohlberg instructed Shin Bet chief David Zini to examine allegations involving foreign funding and possible electoral bribery.
Reporting identified Qatar and Turkey as potential sources under scrutiny, but their involvement had not been established by public evidence.
The investigation concerns suspicions that foreign money reached organizations working to increase turnout among Arab citizens during Tuesday’s election.
Sohlberg’s instruction called for evidence that could either substantiate or refute the allegations, rather than declaring that interference had occurred.
The Jerusalem Post reported investigators were examining reported funding channels and accounts involving envelopes containing cash and Ra’am voting slips.
The newspaper also cited Israeli broadcaster KAN reporting that security officials had begun examining the matter before election day.
Those reported investigative steps do not establish that foreign funding changed the result or that an entire party committed wrongdoing.
Netanyahu’s bloc was projected to secure 53 seats, compared with 48 for Gadi Eisenkot’s grouping and 19 for Arab-led parties.
A governing majority requires 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset, leaving both principal blocs dependent on additional political agreements.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the count had reached approximately 93 percent, with double-envelope ballots still outstanding.
Those ballots allow eligible voters, including soldiers, hospital patients, prisoners, and election workers, to vote away from designated polling stations.
Their allocation could still influence the final seat distribution, so the reported totals remained provisional rather than certified results.
Netanyahu’s Likud was projected to remain the largest party, although that position alone would not guarantee another term in government.
Likud accused Arab parties of stealing the election and called for authorities to investigate alleged bribery, intimidation, and other irregularities.
Police initially rejected the broader stolen-election allegation Thursday, saying they lacked investigative or intelligence evidence supporting those claims.
Their statement described relatively few unusual incidents involving electoral integrity, even compared with previous elections, according to the Jerusalem Post.
That assessment must be distinguished from the separate decision to investigate particular allegations involving foreign funding and potential election offenses.
Police later emphasized that complaints would be examined thoroughly and impartially, according to the Times of Israel’s Thursday coverage.
The same outlet reported four additional arrests connected to an alleged scheme to pay people to vote for Ra’am.
Ra’am identified those detained as activists and denied the allegations, while the connection to the foreign-interference inquiry remained unclear.
An arrest establishes neither guilt nor proof that the alleged conduct affected enough ballots to alter the parliamentary balance.
Eisenkot called for complaints to be investigated while warning political actors against exploiting it to delay the new Knesset’s swearing-in.
The Times of Israel also reported that Sohlberg requested findings within a week, placing an initial timeframe on the inquiry.
Separately, Avigdor Liberman reiterated that he would not join a government led by Netanyahu or one dependent on Arab parties.
That position illustrates why adding together politicians opposed to Netanyahu does not automatically produce a workable governing coalition.
Eisenkot has rejected serving under Netanyahu, and other opposition leaders have also resisted joining a government under the incumbent.
President Isaac Herzog urged political leaders to approach coalition negotiations with open minds and avoid another national election.
Under Israel’s process, Herzog consults parliamentary factions before selecting the lawmaker he considers best positioned to assemble a government.
The selected candidate ordinarily receives 28 days, potentially extended by another 14, to negotiate the necessary support.
Coalition negotiations remained unresolved.
Failure to produce a government through the subsequent procedures could eventually require another election, extending uncertainty beyond the current count, The Jerusalem Post reported.
For Netanyahu, the immediate political advantage remains that his bloc leads Eisenkot’s grouping and Likud remains the largest party.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
