Israeli President Isaac Herzog certified that country's election results Wednesday, formally dismissing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claims of vote fraud — and while American media hangs on every twist of foreign coalition bargaining, the billions in U.S. aid flowing to Israel regardless of who runs the government goes unquestioned.
The certification sets up weeks of horse-trading in which Arab-led parties may emerge as kingmakers. But for American taxpayers, the real question isn't who forms Israel's government — it's why Washington writes blank checks abroad no matter who's in charge while Christians at home fight for basic conscience protections.
Herzog's acceptance of the results dealt a blow to Netanyahu's effort to discredit the vote, in which his religious-nationalist bloc lost its parliamentary majority while Arab-led parties made historic gains. Netanyahu and his allies have claimed, without evidence, that Arab-led parties had "stolen" the election, possibly with foreign assistance. Israel's election commission said Wednesday that after a thorough investigation it found "no evidence of irregularities that compromised the integrity of the election or affected its results."
A separate Shin Bet investigation into foreign interference remains ongoing. The agency, headed by a Netanyahu appointee, claimed in a closed-door meeting there had been a "widespread phenomenon involving the influx of substantial funds into Israel from foreign states," including hostile countries. Shin Bet provided no evidence. Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who heads the election committee, reiterated that even if foreign interference is substantiated, "the scope of their potential impact is limited" and warned that public trust in elections is "easy to destroy, yet very difficult to repair."
NBC News framed the story as a decisive blow to Netanyahu's fraud claims and emphasized the lack of evidence. Fox News buried the fraud dispute and focused on coalition mechanics, giving more oxygen to Netanyahu's framing that the Arab parties as terror supporters.
The final count gives Netanyahu's bloc 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, compared with 48 for the opposition alliance led by Gadi Eisenkot. Sixty-one seats are needed to govern. The two predominantly Arab parties — the Joint List and Ra'am — secured a combined 19 seats, potentially making them kingmakers. A Joint List source told Fox News the alliance is likely to endorse Eisenkot, which would give him more than the 61 seats needed.
Netanyahu posted on X that "the public in Israel does not want a government that depends on Ra'am and the Joint List—parties that support terrorism and reject the existence of the Jewish state." He added he is "open to holding discussions" with any party that "does not support terrorism."
If neither faction can assemble a governing coalition, Israel heads back to the polls early next year.
Meanwhile, not a single American outlet covering this foreign drama pauses to ask what any of it has to do with U.S. interests — or why American money should underwrite the next Israeli government, whoever runs it.
