Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Linda Gradstein: CBS Middle East Correspondent on the latest from Israel's election

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Linda Gradstein: CBS Middle East Correspondent on the latest from Israel's election · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: Most voters, votes I should say, counted in this Israeli
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  Speaker 1: election with Netanyahu the bloc ahead, but neither in a
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  Speaker 1: position or on track for a majority at this point.
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  Speaker 2: We must establish a strong right-wing national government. This is
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  Speaker 2: what needs to be done. It is forbidden, simply forbidden,
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  Speaker 2: to endanger Israel by forming a government that relies on
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  Speaker 2: anti-Zionist Arab parties.
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  Speaker 1: Linda Gradstein is a CBS Middle East correspondent with us
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  Speaker 1: live this morning. Linda, what's the latest here? What do
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  Speaker 1: we know about the vote count?
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  Speaker 3: Well, what we know about the vote count is that
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  Speaker 3: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did significantly better than both
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  Speaker 3: the exit polls and the early returns had expected. But
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  Speaker 3: as you said, neither the change block, which is led
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  Speaker 3: by a former chief of staff named Gadi Eisenkot, nor
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  Speaker 3: Netanyahu can put together a government of 61, a coalition government.
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  Speaker 3: And the big winners actually were the Arab parties. The
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  Speaker 3: Arab turnout was significantly higher than it's been, and they
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  Speaker 3: have 17 seats. The problem is Netanyahu has said he
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  Speaker 3: will not sit in a government with Arab parties, as
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  Speaker 3: has Eisenkot. So there's some talk now about the possibility
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  Speaker 3: of a national unity government, possibly Netanyahu's party, Eisenkot's party,
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  Speaker 3: and one or two of the smaller parties, maybe Naftali Bennett,
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  Speaker 3: who's a former prime minister. The problem with that is
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  Speaker 3: that Netanyahu offered the same thing the last time to
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  Speaker 3: another chief of staff named Benny Gantz. And then they
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  Speaker 3: were supposed to do a rotation. Netanyahu did the first
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  Speaker 3: two years. And all of a sudden, when it came
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  Speaker 3: time for him to give up the job, he didn't
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  Speaker 3: want to do that. So basically, it's in flux. And
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  Speaker 3: what happens now is that each party has a meeting
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  Speaker 3: with the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog. And then Herzog
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  Speaker 3: will ask one one person, either Eisencutt or Netanyahu, to
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  Speaker 3: try to put together a coalition.
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  Speaker 1: Could you end up, or could Israel end up back
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  Speaker 1: in a position like in 2019 to 2022, where there
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  Speaker 1: were five elections in a row because they struggled to
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  Speaker 1: form a lasting government? Could we see another round of elections?
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  Speaker 3: Well, we can definitely see a second round of elections.
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  Speaker 3: I don't think we'll go to five elections again. I
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  Speaker 3: don't think the public wants that. And, you know, polls
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  Speaker 3: have shown that what a public really wants is a
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  Speaker 3: national unity government, which, again, Eisencutt has said that he's
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  Speaker 3: not interested in. On the other hand, that was before
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  Speaker 3: this sort of, you know, non-result, in other words, with
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  Speaker 3: neither side having a clear majority. So it's possible that
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  Speaker 3: there will be a second election. I think we're in
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  Speaker 3: for several weeks of political horse trading before we see
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  Speaker 3: if that's going to happen. And during that time, Netanyahu
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  Speaker 3: would remain the prime minister of a caretaker government.
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  Speaker 1: What does a caretaker government allowed to do in regards to,
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  Speaker 1: you know, not accepting Trump's board of peace roadmap for
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  Speaker 1: the Gaza Strip? As we know, Netanyahu doesn't want to.
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  Speaker 1: Israel continues to hold territory in Lebanon and Syria. Trump's
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  Speaker 1: talking about restarting the war. We know Netanyahu wants to
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  Speaker 1: get back into in terms of Iran. What does it mean?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it basically means that they're still the government and
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  Speaker 3: they can basically do anything that the previous government could do.
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  Speaker 3: And there was a lot of speculation in Israel that
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  Speaker 3: there would be an attack on Iran even before these
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  Speaker 3: elections as a way of postponing them. From Netanyahu's perspective,
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  Speaker 3: you know, the longer that he stays in power, the better.
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  Speaker 3: There is some talk that of making him the president
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  Speaker 3: of Israel in 2028 when Isaac Herzog's term ends. So that,
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  Speaker 3: you know, if there's some sort of a deal that
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  Speaker 3: would include that, it's really not clear. But my understanding
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  Speaker 3: is that a caretaker government can do everything that a
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  Speaker 3: regular government can do.
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  Speaker 1: All right. Good to have your insight as always. Linda Gradstein,
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  Speaker 1: who's CBS Middle East correspondent.
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• 3:59
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