President Trump on Wednesday shared a quote crediting him with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lead in the Israeli elections, though his coalition is far from the majority needed to form a new government.
“When President Trump endorsed Bibi Netanyahu, the whole tide turned, and now, rather than a decisive defeat for a Great Prime Minister, it looks like a big come-from-behind stalemate, or even a WIN for Netanyahu,” Trump wrote on Truth Social just after midnight.
“It all took place AFTER the Endorsement by President Trump, who only wants what is good for the Middle East, Israel, and the United States of America!” he added. Trump attributed the quote to a person named Irving C. Schwartz, but it’s unclear who that is or where the quote came from.
Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Trump endorsed Netanyahu twice, and suggested that he needed a Netanyahu-led Israel to “finish the job” against Iran. Trump was asked on Wednesday whether he would get involved in efforts to form a unity government with Netanyahu as leader and said he hadn’t thought about it but would “take a look.”
Initial Israeli exit polls on Tuesday showed the anti-Netanyahu bloc, led by Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party, with more Knesset seats than Netanyahu’s coalition, but the results flipped Tuesday night. As of Wednesday night in Israel, over 85% of the votes have been counted, showing Netanyahu’s coalition with 53 seats, Eisenkot’s with 48, and the parties led by Palestinian citizens of Israel with 19 seats.
While Netanyahu has taken the lead, he’s still well short of the 61 seats needed to form a government, and his Likud party is blaming the Palestinian parties.
“The elections in the State of Israel were stolen by Arab parties that support terrorism and the elimination of the Jewish state through serious criminal offenses of bribery, threats, violence, forgeries, and the use of prohibited software to mobilize voters,” the Likud said in a statement shared by Netanyahu on X.
Palestinian citizens of Israel have the right to vote in Knesset elections, but Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza do not, while Israeli settlers living in illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank can vote. Tuesday’s vote saw a record turnout for Palestinian citizens of Israel, but the Likud is claiming some sort of fraud had taken place and is demanding an investigation.
In a speech after the vote, Netanyahu said that Israel’s “Jewish and Zionist majority” must unite to form a government. “It is simply forbidden to endanger Israel and form a government that rests on anti-Zionist Arab parties. Parties that oppose our very existence, that see Hamas as a charitable organization, that call our soldiers war criminals,” he said.
