Election Polls Show No Clear Majority for Any Bloc

Good Morning, Israel · Wednesday, October 28, 2026 · 7:56

Good Morning, Israel · Episode 31

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The stories Maya and Daniel cover, in order. Read any of them in full on baba News.

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Maya: Israelis voted in record numbers, and the exit polls say nobody won outright.
Daniel: Likud comes out on top, but the sixty-one seats needed to govern are nowhere in sight for either bloc.
Maya: This is Good Morning, Israel from baba News. It's Wednesday, October twenty-eighth. I'm Maya.
Daniel: And I'm Daniel.
Maya: Daniel, yesterday we walked through how the vote works. Now the first numbers are in. What do they say?
Daniel: According to the exit polls from Israeli television channels, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party is the largest, with twenty-five seats.
Maya: And right behind?
Daniel: Gadi Eisenkot's party, Yashar, with twenty-one to twenty-three seats. Eisenkot is the former I D F Chief of Staff who entered politics.
Maya: So the race we described all week, the general against the incumbent, really is that close.
Daniel: It is. And the bigger point is the blocs. No bloc is projected to reach sixty-one, a majority in the one hundred and twenty seat Knesset, Israel's parliament.
Maya: Which means nobody can form a government on their own numbers tonight.
Daniel: Exactly. And there's a wild card. Several smaller parties are expected to fall below the electoral threshold, the minimum share a party needs to get any seats at all.
Maya: And if a party falls below it?
Daniel: Its votes are effectively wasted. Every party that drops out shifts the math for its bloc. A few hundred thousand votes can just evaporate from one side.
Maya: So the party that misses the cut can sink a coalition it never even joined.
Daniel: That's Israeli politics in one sentence.
Maya: Now the turnout, because that number jumped out.
Daniel: A record. Seventy-seven point seven percent of eligible voters took part, according to the official figures. That's five million, six hundred and ninety-five thousand, six hundred and eighty-two people by the ten p m close.
Maya: How does that compare?
Daniel: It's seven point one percent higher than the previous election, and the highest turnout in twenty-four years.
Maya: Wait, even with the rain we warned about?
Daniel: Even with the rain. People clearly felt this one mattered.
Maya: Was there a pattern in who came out?
Daniel: One that stood out. By six in the evening turnout had already hit sixty-six point seven percent, nine points up on last time, and there was high participation reported in Arab towns.
Maya: Why does that matter for the result?
Daniel: Because it can change who clears the threshold. Higher turnout raises the bar in raw votes, and it helps the parties whose voters showed up.
Maya: And the campaigns knew it during the day.
Daniel: They did. Senior right-wing figures, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, urged supporters to vote and warned about wasted votes. And Likud asked for voting hours to be extended because of congestion at polling stations.
Maya: So what comes next?
Daniel: The Central Elections Committee, the body running the vote, thanked voters and staff and began counting. Official results come out progressively. And remember those double envelope ballots, the soldiers, patients and others voting outside their usual station. They're counted separately and can still move a seat.
Maya: So the exit poll is the trailer. The count is the film.
Daniel: And with the blocs this tight, the ending isn't written yet.
Maya: One more election day story, and it's a tense one. Tel Aviv, opposition figure Yair Golan.
Daniel: A man with a knife was detained near Golan at a public event in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
Maya: What exactly happened?
Daniel: The accounts differ. Golan's party says the man approached him in a menacing way. The police say they stopped him because of a suspicious item, found the knife, and deny there was any attempted attack.
Maya: And Golan's reaction?
Daniel: He blamed Prime Minister Netanyahu for inciting hatred.
Maya: There's important background on his security.
Daniel: Yes. The Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, recently took over Golan's protection because of an elevated threat level. And on Sunday we told you Eisenkot had also been given a supervised security detail.
Maya: Two senior opposition figures under heavier protection in one week.
Daniel: Right. And Golan had promised to start pushing for a state inquiry into October seventh today. So he'll be doing that under close guard.
Maya: Now Iran, a story we've followed all week. What's new?
Daniel: According to The Wall Street Journal, the United States has asked several Persian Gulf countries to prepare for a short, intensive military operation after the U S midterm elections on November third.
Maya: Against Iran.
Daniel: According to the report, yes. It's part of joint preparations by Washington and Jerusalem for high-intensity combat operations, aimed at pushing Tehran toward negotiations.
Maya: And the White House?
Daniel: President Donald Trump is reportedly leaning toward approving a large-scale attack.
Maya: That's a very different picture from the pre-election dispute we described.
Daniel: It is. On Monday and Tuesday the reports were about whether Israel should act before its own vote. This report points to a timeline after the American one, and with the U S in the lead.
Maya: Why does that matter for Israel?
Daniel: Because Iran's regime is the main threat Israel faces. Acting alongside Washington, with Gulf partners prepared, is a far stronger position than acting alone. And whoever forms the next Israeli government will be the one handling it.
Maya: To Europe now, and Eurovision.
Daniel: The Dutch public broadcaster has pulled the Netherlands out of the twenty twenty-seven contest over Israel's participation. Its media director, Yuri Bosman, said Israel's involvement was causing divisions in Dutch society.
Maya: It's not the first country to do this.
Daniel: No, it follows earlier withdrawals and boycotts over the war in Gaza. But notice who's leaving. Israel stays in, and the Dutch will still broadcast the show.
Maya: So they'll watch the contest, just not compete in it.
Daniel: And it's worth remembering what that war is. Israel is fighting the terrorist organization Hamas after the October seventh massacre. Israel competing in a song contest isn't the thing dividing anyone's society.
Maya: A quick round. Big tech money first.
Daniel: Intel has agreed to buy the Israeli quantum computing software startup Classiq, for an estimated two point two to two point three billion dollars, according to Israeli media.
Maya: What does Classiq actually make?
Daniel: Software that makes it simpler to write algorithms for quantum computers. It was founded in twenty twenty. Intel says the deal strengthens its quantum business.
Maya: Six years to a two billion dollar exit. Not bad.
Daniel: Another one for the Israeli tech scene.
Maya: Speaking of spending, Israelis apparently treated election day as a shopping day.
Daniel: They did. Election day is a national day off, and credit card spending rose thirty-seven point five percent, to about seven hundred and thirty-one million shekels.
Maya: Vote, then shop.
Daniel: Some malls saw triple their usual traffic, mostly fashion and dining. Though overall mall visits were down from the last election day, just up on a normal Tuesday. And the day off has a real cost to the economy.
Maya: And finally, a health warning.
Daniel: The Israeli Health Ministry says a woman was hospitalized after using a hair straightening product called Revival Miracle. It contains a banned ingredient, glyoxylic acid, and it's sold without a license.
Maya: The advice?
Daniel: Stop using it immediately, and get medical help if you have any symptoms.
Maya: Before we go, one thing to watch today.
Daniel: The official count. As results come out through the day, watch which of the smaller parties clear the threshold. That will tell us more about who can build sixty-one than any exit poll.
Maya: Follow Good Morning, Israel so tomorrow's episode is waiting for you.
Daniel: See you tomorrow morning.

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