Level 1 - Absolute Beginner
Israel had an election on Tuesday. People voted for a new parliament. The parliament is called the Knesset.
No group won enough seats. A group needs 61 seats to win. The group of Prime Minister Netanyahu has 53 seats. The group of Gadi Eisenkot has 48 seats.
Arab parties have 19 seats. They are not in either group.
Now the leaders must talk. They must try to make a government. This can take a long time.
- election
- a day when people vote
- parliament
- the group of people who make laws
- seat
- a place in parliament
- group
- a number of people or parties together
- prime minister
- the leader of a government
- vote
- to choose with your hand or paper
- government
- the people who run a country
- leader
- a person who guides others
Level 2 - Elementary
Israel held an election on Tuesday, but the count shows no winner. The Central Elections Committee says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc has 53 seats in the Knesset. The bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot has 48. Arab parties have 19.
A bloc needs 61 of the 120 seats to rule. Neither side is near that number. Some papers say Likud has 26 seats and some say 27, so the final number is not clear yet.
About 600,000 ballots from soldiers and voters outside their home towns were still waiting to be counted when the early count was reported. They can change a few seats.
Within seven days of the official results, the president must ask one member of parliament to try to build a government. That person will have to make deals with other parties.
- bloc
- a group of parties that work together
- committee
- a small group chosen to do a job
- ballot
- a paper used to vote
- count
- to find the total number
- official
- approved by the proper authority
- deal
- an agreement between people
- coalition
- a government made of several parties
- result
- the final outcome
Level 3 - Intermediate
Israel's latest election has produced the kind of deadlock the country knows well. With most of the vote counted, the Central Elections Committee gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc 53 seats, the opposition bloc led by former army chief Gadi Eisenkot 48, and the Arab parties 19. No camp comes close to the 61 seats required for a majority in the 120 seat Knesset.
Even Likud's tally depends on the source: some outlets list 26 seats, others 27. The uncertainty stems from roughly 600,000 absentee and soldiers' ballots that had not yet been counted in the early report, and which can shift the last seats between parties.
The next steps are procedural. Once the official results are published, the president has seven days to ask one lawmaker to try to assemble a coalition, usually the leader with the best chance of finding 61 votes. A party must win at least 3.25 percent of valid votes to enter the Knesset at all.
With the Arab parties outside both main camps, the arithmetic is hard. Either leader would need defections, an unusual alliance or a fresh vote, and the weeks ahead will turn on quiet negotiations over ministries, budgets and military service rules.
- deadlock
- a situation where no side can win
- tally
- a total count of votes
- absentee
- not present at the usual place
- procedural
- relating to the set steps of a process
- assemble
- to bring together
- defection
- leaving one side to join another
- arithmetic
- the practical calculation of numbers
- alliance
- a partnership between groups
Level 4 - Advanced
Israel's electorate has once again returned a verdict that resolves very little. According to the Central Elections Committee's count, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc secured 53 seats, the opposition grouping led by Gadi Eisenkot 48, and the Arab parties 19, leaving every camp well short of the 61 required to govern in the 120 seat Knesset.
Precision remains elusive. Outlets disagree on whether Likud won 26 or 27 seats, and roughly 600,000 absentee and soldiers' ballots were uncounted when the early tally was published, enough to nudge the margins between parties competing for the last mandates near the 3.25 percent threshold.
Constitutionally, the sequence is clear even if the outcome is not: within a week of certified results the president must entrust one lawmaker with forming a coalition. In practice that choice is a political act, since the nominee's prospects hinge on whether defectors, small parties or an unlikely accommodation with the Arab parties can bridge a gap of eight seats.
What follows is likely to be a protracted bargaining season in which ministries, budget priorities and the contentious question of military conscription become currency. If no majority materializes, the country faces the prospect of yet another election, a recurring feature of its recent politics that voters have come to regard with fatigue rather than surprise.
- electorate
- all the people who can vote
- verdict
- a final judgment or decision
- elusive
- hard to find or achieve
- mandate
- a seat or authority given by voters
- certified
- officially confirmed
- accommodation
- a compromise agreement
- protracted
- lasting longer than expected
- conscription
- required service in the armed forces
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