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Ben-Gvir and Smotrich cite alternative poll after Israeli election setback

An Arabic-language report contrasts their defiant responses with projections leaving Netanyahu's bloc short of a governing majority.

Channel: Al Araby Arabic channel ·

Arab worldStory of October 29, 2026Trari Newsroom

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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.

استندا إلى استطلاع مغاير.. كيف علق بن غفير وسموتريتش على هزيمة اليمين المتطرف في إسرائيل؟

Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich turned to a different television poll to present an upbeat account of Israel's election night, even as other projections showed a setback for the right, correspondent Ahmed Darawsheh reports.

The brief segment from Qatar-based Al Araby Television says the two far-right leaders relied on Israeli Channel 14's poll. Darawsheh reports that other parties, including Likud, rejected those projections, while Ben-Gvir used them to portray the result as an achievement.

Ben-Gvir leads Otzma Yehudit, while Smotrich heads the Religious Zionist Party. Both are allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the report, Smotrich predicted victory and an additional seat, said they would not let Arabs celebrate, and reiterated plans to build new settlements in Gaza.

Darawsheh also recounts a sharply different response from Moshe Feiglin, identified in the segment as a Smotrich ally. Feiglin compared the right's electoral defeat to a political version of October 7.

The screen carries Channel 12 projections putting Gadi Eisenkot's bloc slightly ahead of Netanyahu's, with Arab parties holding a substantial share of seats and neither major bloc reaching a majority. The segment ends by announcing expected speeches from Eisenkot and Netanyahu, placing these reactions firmly in the election-night period, before a final result.

A later update from the broadcaster puts Netanyahu's bloc ahead in the partial count, but still short of a governing majority. The competing election-night polls were not the final verdict.