Democrats' chairman Yair Golan said that the bloc led by Prime Minister Netanyahu lost the 2026 Knesset election, as the opposition bloc reached 65 seats when the Arab parties are included.
"Netanyahu lost. I know how to count to 120. 65 is more than 55. That's how Israeli democracy works. Period," he said, calling for the inclusion of Arab parties in the government in the upcoming Knesset elections," he wrote Wednesday morning.
He also said that if Netanyahu was considering forming a Zionist bloc, he should "subtract from his own bloc the 16 Knesset members from the non-Zionist Haredi parties."
"We have a majority. We have responsibility. And we have an opportunity to form a government of change in partnership with Israel's Arab citizens. A government that will serve all Israeli citizens," Golan added.
MK Gilad Kariv (The Democrats) said that Israel is in a "different political reality" the morning after the 2026 Knesset elections and called for the opposition bloc to work with Arab parties.
“The fully right-wing coalition has lost quite a few seats. It will most likely be unable to form a government in a similar configuration," he wrote on X/Twitter.
"The opposition has grown stronger, both in its representation of the liberal Jewish public and in its representation of the Arab public. A substantial majority, by a margin of hundreds of thousands of votes, voted against Benjamin Netanyahu.
"A huge segment of the Israeli public – one that serves, works, contributes, and creates – expects us to make significant and fateful decisions about Israel’s future and to continue acting together, with the full understanding that Netanyahu and his partners must not be allowed to continue leading our country down the destructive path they have taken over the past four years," he concluded.
Arab parties receive unprecedented number of seats in 2026 elections
This follows projections that two Arab parties, Ra'am and the Joint List, will win six and 11 seats, respectively, according to data from the Central Elections Committee (CEC).
The opposition bloc, comprising Yashar, B’Yachad, Yisrael Beytenu, and the Democrats, is expected to enter the Knesset with 49 seats, according to data from the CEC.
CEC data shows that Golan's Democrats is projected to win eight seats in the 2026 elections.