Israel Election Could Leave Both Camps Short of a Majority

Israelis are scheduled to vote on October 27 in a parliamentary election that could leave both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s camp and its rivals short of a clear path to forming a government. The contest has tightened as election day approaches, and coalition negotiations are expected to be central to who governs. The 120-seat Knesset is elected through proportional representation, with voters choosing parties whose candidates take seats from party lists. A government needs support from at least 61 lawmakers, and Israeli governments are formed through coalitions. Polling summaries point to a close race but use different party and bloc groupings. An average of nine polls published over the two weeks before election day put Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party first in eight surveys, with an average of 22.1 seats, compared with 20.6 for Likud, according to figures reported by Israel.com. Those are party-level averages, not projections of which bloc can assemble a majority. A separate average of the last 10 polls, published by the State of Israel website, gave the outgoing coalition 53 seats, two more than the opposition bloc. That projection also left the coalition below the...