JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Voting in Israel has ended, and exit polls suggest most Israelis have voted against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But the center-right opposition may struggle to build a governing coalition. Many Israelis have said this election is the most important in their history, and turnout has been the highest in decades. Two NPR correspondents join us now from Israel to help us make sense of the results and what we've heard so far. NPR's Ruth Sherlock is in Jerusalem, and NPR's Daniel Estrin is in Tel Aviv. Hi to both of you.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Hi, Juana.
RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: Hi.
SUMMERS: Daniel, I want to start with you. I understand that you're at a gathering of the main opposition party. Help us make sense of these initial exit polls.
ESTRIN: Yeah, all the main exit polls so far have the opposition bloc of center-right parties as the biggest bloc. This is a bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot. He is the former military chief of staff. And this bloc of parties is slightly ahead of Netanyahu's bloc. He leads a group of far-right, ultrareligious parties. So this is very promising news for Eisenkot and his supporters. I want to play for you a little bit of what it sounded like at his campaign headquarters here when the initial exit polls were announced.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Chanting in non-English language).
ESTRIN: So his supporters there are chanting, "he is the next prime minister." And Eisenkot said in a statement after the initial exit polls that they point to, quote, "a complete distrust in Netanyahu and the government of October 7." That's a reference to the Hamas attack three years ago. But the race is not over yet. We could see the map shift as votes are counted throughout the night. And I spoke with one activist with Eisenkot's party, Ofili Namiash, and here's how she put it.
OFILI NAMIASH: I'm anxious. Listen, the results are good. But they're complex. It takes time before we have a full picture.
ESTRIN: But it is certainly a very, very confident mood here at the main opposition party gathering.
SUMMERS: Ruth, over to you now. I know you're at Netanyahu's election night headquarters in Jerusalem. What are you seeing and hearing?
SHERLOCK: Well, Netanyahu's supporters certainly aren't giving up yet. You know, he is Israel's longest-serving prime minister, and people here say there are still many votes to be counted. Here's Netanyahu supporter Elie Pieprz.
ELIE PIEPRZ: I've been here many times at different campaigns where at the first hour, that's what the exit polls show, and then you wait a little bit, and Prime Minister Netanyahu (ph) has had a knack of getting over the top when he needed it.
SHERLOCK: This political survival is part of Netanyahu's story after the October 7 attacks. Few in Israel thought he'd remain in power because of questions over the security failures that led to Israel's deadliest day. But he managed to keep his far-right coalition together, and he responded, of course, with the devastating war in Gaza and the conflicts in Lebanon and Iran. And in this election, he's run on this idea that these wars show he's the only leader with the mettle to keep Israelis safe. He got a last-minute endorsement from President Trump, and now his supporters here say they want to see a broad coalition government, one possibly with Eisenkot in it, but with Netanyahu at the helm.
SUMMERS: I mean, it's still really early. It's too early, in fact, to call the election. But, Daniel, when might we have a clearer sense of who has won?
ESTRIN: It's going to take all night for votes to be counted. By tomorrow morning, local time, the vast majority of the votes will have been counted. And so, one thing to look for is whether two small right-wing parties get enough votes to make it into the Parliament. That could actually shift the map and not in Eisenkot's favor. Another thing to look out for is Israeli soldiers' votes. They have been casting ballots in territories where they're serving - in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Syria. So as those votes continue to be counted for several days, that could also tip the scales in this race.
But the main thing to look at now is if Eisenkot, the center-right opposition leader, manages to get the opportunity from Israel's president and is tasked to start negotiating with other parties to try to form a coalition government, the big question is - will he turn to Arab-led parties? Those parties had a very strong finishing in this election so far, according to the exit polls. And yet his right-wing allies, Eisenkot's camp, has been very resistant to rely on Arab-led parties for political support. So we're going to have to see if they make any kind of deal in order to form a coalition government. We could see many surprises here, Juana. One potential option could be some power-sharing deal, as Ruth mentions. There could even be a stalemate and a repeat election next year.
SUMMERS: Wow. OK, so as we watch and wait for the final results, remind us about the stakes of this moment. No matter how this election goes, what might it mean for the region, as well as for those of us here in the U.S., Ruth?
SHERLOCK: Well, look, this election has very clear and obvious stakes when it comes to a potential resumption of the war in Iran. Netanyahu has campaigned on a promise to "finish the job" - that's a quote, direct quote - in Iran, if he's reelected, and Trump has also suggested this could happen. And there are, of course, you know, big questions about how this changes lives for Palestinians. None of the leading parties here say they believe in a two-state solution with Palestinians. Eisenkot has promised a clampdown of settler violence in the occupied West Bank, but, you know, he says soldiers will continue to remain in Gaza, that Hamas has to be defeated and that they will remain in Lebanon for the foreseeable future. So this election, the other thing to consider here is that it does have a major significance for Israel's relations with the U.S. in this region and the world. You know, many are hoping Eisenkot will strike a more conciliatory tone to try to end Israel's global isolation that the war in Gaza has really brought about.
SUMMERS: NPR's Ruth Sherlock in Jerusalem and NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv, thanks to both of you.
SHERLOCK: Thank you so much (ph).
ESTRIN: Thank you, (inaudible). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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