Election stalemate – what next for Israel?

Defying pre-election predictions, and even exit polls, Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud and his right-wing ultra nationalist bloc are set to have the biggest number of seats in the 120-seat Knesset but will not reach a majority.

In this week’s Israeli election, with few votes yet to be counted, he has 54 seats, while newcomer Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition bloc has 49.

Neither is on track to reach the 61 seats needed for a majority government.

But post-election negotiations to create a coalition are the norm in Israel – no party has ever won a majority – and there is a bloc of seats that would get either party over the line. Arab parties have won an unprecedented 17 seats following a surge in voting.

In many other countries, as coalition horse trading commences, they would now be kingmakers.

But Netanyahu and Eisenkot made it a firm pre-election promise that they wouldn’t go into coalition with an Arab party, so does that make an election rerun inevitable, and who would that suit?

Why was there an historically large turnout? Why were the polls so wrong about Netanyahu’s prospects?

And what difference would it make to the world if either Netanyahu or Eisenkot were able to cobble together a new government for Israel?

Mark Weiss reports from Jerusalem.

• Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey.