# Netanyahu Calls a Coalition With Arab Parties 'a Shame and a Disgrace,' as His Own Bloc Falls Short > Likud accused Arab parties of stealing the election after exit-poll numbers held, with the Joint List and Ra'am reaching a record 19 seats, and Netanyahu told supporters it is forbidden to rely on anti-Zionist Arab parties, even as Eisenkot urged him to accept defeat. - Source: Israel Today - Canonical URL: https://israeltoday.news/article/netanyahu-arab-coalition-shame-disgrace-election-deadlock - Author: Noa Bar-Lev - Section: Politics - Published: 2026-10-28T12:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-28T12:00:00.000Z - Tags: Elections, Netanyahu, Arab Parties --- Prime Minister Netanyahu told supporters on election night that a coalition relying on Arab parties would be a shame and a disgrace, and that it is forbidden, simply forbidden, to endanger Israel by establishing a government that depends on anti-Zionist Arab parties. The remark came as the numbers his own campaign had warned about all autumn held through the night: neither his bloc nor Gadi Eisenkot's reached 61 seats on its own. The Joint List and Ra'am finished with a combined 19 seats, a record for Arab-led parties and enough to decide which bloc can actually govern. Likud's own statement went further than Netanyahu's own remarks, accusing Arab parties of having stolen the election, language that treats a record turnout among Arab citizens as an illegitimate result rather than a counted one. Eisenkot took the opposite position, urging Netanyahu to accept defeat even as Netanyahu claimed his bloc had won a decisive majority among the Zionist public, a phrase that answers a question nobody asked about seats with a claim about which votes should count. The two statements describe the same numbers from opposite directions: one side says it won among the voters it considers legitimate, the other says the election simply has not produced a winner yet. What Netanyahu's language forecloses is not a specific outcome but an entire category of one. A government that needs Arab-led parties to reach 61, whether through formal coalition or outside support, is the only mathematical path either bloc has shown so far, and Netanyahu ruled it out by name before any party leader had begun coalition talks. That leaves the deadlock exactly where the exit polls left it the night before, except now one side has already declared which arithmetic it refuses to accept. --- Originally published by Israel Today. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://israeltoday.news/article/netanyahu-arab-coalition-shame-disgrace-election-deadlock.