Israel's election chief says the vote stands as Netanyahu's fraud claims fizzle

Israeli officials made it plain Sunday: the election is staying put. The head of the elections committee sat between the attorney general and the chief of the Shin Bet intelligence service to announce that even if the foreign interference claims floated last week turn out to be true, the vote itself would not be overturned.

The committee chief, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, said the position is that substantiated suspicions would not undermine the integrity of the electoral process or the results as a whole. Netanyahu's Likud party fired back quickly, asking how the committee could acknowledge serious allegations while insisting the outcome won't change.

The pushback came on multiple fronts. A judge questioned or rejected police requests for tighter restrictions on three activists arrested before polls opened on Oct. 27 with envelopes of cash allegedly meant to bribe voters. Police then said one suspect was released under unspecified conditions, another was ordered held on house arrest for eight days, and the third's detention was extended two days. Police tied the suspects to the Islamist party Ra'am, which denies involvement — and Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas blasted the arrests as undemocratic and an attempt to sway the results.

The numbers tell the story of why Netanyahu is fighting so hard. His parliamentary bloc slumped to 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, down from a peak of 68 in the outgoing parliament. A bloc led by rival Gadi Eisenkot took 48 seats, and Arab-led parties, Ra'am included, grabbed the remaining 19 — enough combined to push Netanyahu out if the two opposing camps can agree to govern together.

Eisenkot accused Netanyahu on Sunday of running an orchestrated campaign to delegitimize the results, pointing to insinuations that Qatar backed opposition parties. Qatar has denied funding anything meant to influence the outcome. Many Israelis view the Gulf state as a patron of Hamas, and Qatar-related allegations have shaken Israeli politics before, including a case involving close Netanyahu aides.

Results are due to be certified this week, after which President Isaac Herzog starts meeting with each elected party about their pick for prime minister. He'll then tap whoever he believes can build a coalition, most likely Netanyahu or Eisenkot. Weeks of negotiations follow — and if they collapse, Israelis could be back at the polls early next year. Netanyahu has called it treasonous for Eisenkot to team up with Arab parties, and a few dozen protesters gathered outside Eisenkot's home Sunday night. Yousef Jabareen, who leads the 11-seat Joint List, said Netanyahu falls back on racist incitement and delegitimization of Arab citizens, who make up 20% of the population.