Herzog seeks to avoid another election as special ballots await counting
The broadcast examines possible unity-government negotiations and why the remaining ballots may affect Arab parties differently from the larger blocs.
Arab worldStory of Why this story? One of العربي - أخبار 's most watched videos since yesterday, with 696,604 views.
العربي - أخبار : The Arabic television channel Al Araby, broadcasting from London since 2015, owned by a company backed by Qatar. 12M subscribers and 9.6B views.
أول تعليق من الرئيس الإسرائيلي على نتائج انتخابات الكنيست والمرحلة المقبلة
Things we can learn from the video
Press to jump
- 0:00Herzog's call to avoid another election opens the discussion of government-formation consultations.
- 0:54Khoury raises a unity government and discusses how Netanyahu's trial and possible pardon requests could affect negotiations.
- 2:15Khoury floats a hypothetical Netanyahu presidency, not an announced political agreement.
- 3:40Ahmed estimates about 600,000 special ballots remain, with an important but limited effect on the larger blocs.
- 4:33Ahmed says these ballots usually disadvantage Arab parties and examines differences among the voting groups.
Isaac Herzog says he will do everything possible to avoid another Israeli election, but government-formation consultations must wait for the official results. In the broadcast, an on-screen statement from Israel's president says he expects those results next week and will then begin consultations.
Qatar-based Al Araby Television's news service pairs that announcement with analysis of two unresolved questions: whether political opponents could agree on a unity government, and how much the remaining special ballots could change the parliamentary arithmetic.
Speaking from Haifa, Israeli-affairs researcher Jack Khoury argues that another election would deepen polarization and mutual accusations. He raises a national unity government as one possible route out of the impasse, while suggesting Benjamin Netanyahu could enter negotiations in a weaker position than before.
Khoury also discusses Netanyahu's trial and possible pardon requests as factors that could shape negotiations. He goes further, floating a hypothetical future move by Netanyahu into the presidency as an exit from party politics. These are scenarios advanced by the analyst, not an announced agreement or a proposal attributed to Herzog.
The broadcast's provisional seat table leaves Netanyahu's bloc and the bloc associated with challenger Gadi Eisenkot both short of a governing majority, with Arab parties holding a substantial group of seats.
A second analyst, introduced as Ahmed, then explains the outstanding "double-envelope" ballots. These include votes cast under special arrangements by soldiers, hospitalized voters and staff. He puts their number at about 600,000 out of roughly 4.5 million votes, describing their potential effect as important but unlikely to transform the larger blocs.
For Arab parties, he says, the effect can be less favorable. His explanation considers the different voting groups within the remaining ballots, including soldiers, Bedouin voters and prisoners, rather than treating them as a single predictable vote. The distinction matters: the final count can alter individual parties' positions without necessarily resolving the wider coalition deadlock.
Israel’s president since 2021.
More on Wikipedia ›Leader of Israel’s Yashar party and Netanyahu’s main challenger in the 2026 election. He previously served as military chief of staff and as a minister in a unity government.
More on Wikipedia ›Published on Trari
Where next?
- Channel
- العربي - أخبار
- Subscribers
- 11,900,000
- Channel views, pace per day
- 13,073,300
- Video published
- October 28, 2026
- Video views so far
- 696,604 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 882,812
The numbers
The broadcast drew roughly 697,000 views since yesterday, making it the most-watched new video among the Arab world's leading news channels in this selection.
