Netanyahu uses a deadlocked Knesset to evade accountability

By Tom Beckwith · Reporting from Washington · October 29, 2026

With no clear winner in the Israeli election, Benjamin Netanyahu is leveraging his caretaker status and U.S. support to bypass a democratic mandate and maintain power.

Benjamin Netanyahu is treating a lack of a mandate as a license to escalate. He is wrong to do so. By clinging to the caretaker’s office while the Knesset remains paralyzed, he is not preserving stability. He is using the void of power to avoid the consequences of his own governance. The Israeli electorate has spoken, and they have delivered a stalemate. Netanyahu intends to use that silence to launch a war.

The arithmetic of a frozen state

The numbers from the Israeli Central Elections Committee are a map of a deadlocked country. As reported by Al Jazeera, ballots are counted. Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc is on course for 53 seats. Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition bloc is expected to secure 48 seats. Neither can reach the 61 seats required to form a government.

The kingmakers are the Arab parties. Projections from NPR indicate they could hold 19 seats. This gain represents a decisive rejection of the current administration.

But the Jewish political class remains trapped in its own habits. Gadi Eisenkot has ruled out a minority government with Arab-led parties. Netanyahu has done the same. This refusal creates a vacuum. The Likud party has already attempted to fill that vacuum with noise. They claim the elections were "stolen" by Arab parties through bribery and violence. This is a convenient fiction designed to delegitimize the only bloc that can break the tie.

The caretaker's luxury

In diplomacy, a caretaker government is a placeholder. It is meant to keep the lights on. But Netanyahu views the caretaker role as a fortress. He remains prime minister until a new government forms. He knows that the opposition is too fractured to remove him quickly.

He is not alone in this gamble. SBS News reports that Donald Trump has urged voters to reelect Netanyahu to "finish the job." This is more than campaign rhetoric. It is a synchronized strategy. According to federal records, President Trump signed Executive Order 14436 in October 2026. This order implements the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act.

The order is a tool of economic cover. It grants broad presidential waivers on sanctions. This allows the U.S. to insulate the global economy while providing Netanyahu the diplomatic air cover he needs. Netanyahu has called this a "singular historical opportunity" to remove the Iranian threat.

He is counting on the fear of Iran to override the arithmetic of the Knesset. If he initiates a strike, he forces the security establishment to rally behind him. He turns a domestic political failure into a national security imperative. This is the only way he can survive without a majority.

The cost of the cordon sanitaire

The opposition is suffering from a self-imposed blindness. The Washington Post notes that a parliamentary majority is within easy reach. But to take it, the opposition must accept the votes of Palestinian citizens of Israel. They refuse to do so.

This is the same mechanism that drove the Israeli political crisis of 2019–2022. In that period, a fragmented parliament where no single bloc could reach a majority without an ideologically incompatible third party led to systemic deadlock. The result was five elections in three years. The system did not break; it simply stopped working.

The current deadlock is more dangerous. The stakes are no longer just about who sits in the prime minister's office. They are about the survival of the state's credibility. The Joint List has pledged to prevent Netanyahu's return. They call his government a "government of butchers." They point to the 74,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the right wing is emboldened. A 24-year-old Likud supporter told NPR that the policy is now to kill those who fight them. This is the atmosphere Netanyahu is cultivating. He does not want a coalition of consensus. He wants a coalition of fear.

France 24 reports that Lebanon expects little change in Israeli policy. They are correct. Netanyahu has no incentive to compromise when he can simply wait. He knows that Isaac Herzog will try to avoid another round of elections. He knows the opposition will eventually blink.

Netanyahu will exploit his caretaker mandate and the U.S. executive waivers under the Graham Act to initiate military operations against Iran. He will use external escalation to force the opposition into a unity government. He will trade a bomb for a seat. He will use the blood of a regional war to wash away the stain of a failed election.

Netanyahu uses a deadlocked Knesset to evade accountability

The arithmetic of a frozen state

The caretaker's luxury

The cost of the cordon sanitaire

Sources