JERUSALEM - Israel entered a period of political uncertainty Wednesday after preliminary election results left Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc and the opposition led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot short of the 61 seats needed to control the Knesset.

With 85.6% of all ballots counted, the Central Elections Committee reported 53 seats for Netanyahu's Likud-led bloc, 48 for Eisenkot and allied parties, and 19 for Arab-led parties, according to The Times of Israel. Roughly 600,000 special ballots, including votes from soldiers, diplomats and hospitalized people, still had to be counted.

The figures could change before official results are certified. They nonetheless pointed toward weeks of coalition bargaining, with neither major camp able to govern alone and another election possible if no candidate assembles a majority.

President Isaac Herzog said he would receive the official results next week and then consult every parliamentary faction before choosing a lawmaker to try to form a government. The president generally selects the leader considered most likely to build a coalition, not automatically the head of the largest party.

Likud appeared likely to remain the largest individual party, leaving Netanyahu in a strong position to receive the first mandate. His religious and ultranationalist coalition, however, was projected to fall sharply from the 68 seats it held at its peak in the outgoing parliament. Likud itself was projected at about 27 seats, down from 32.

The vote was Israel's first national election since the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023, and the wars that followed. The campaign became a judgment on Netanyahu's long rule, the security failures surrounding the attack, his ongoing corruption trial, ultra-Orthodox exemptions from military service and the direction of Israel's democratic institutions.

Eisenkot's bloc campaigned on accountability, stronger courts and an end to broad draft exemptions. But even if parties opposed to Netanyahu hold a numerical majority, Eisenkot would probably need the support of Arab-led parties that some Jewish opposition factions have been unwilling to accept as governing partners.

Arab parties' projected 19 seats would be a historic high. Palestinian citizens of Israel make up about one-fifth of the population, but their parties have usually remained outside governing coalitions. Only one Arab party has joined an Israeli coalition, in 2021, and that government survived for about 18 months.

Likud alleged that Arab voters had stolen the election and asked authorities to investigate purported offenses, but it had not publicly presented specific evidence, AP reported. The Central Elections Committee said it would review the complaint as it reviews party submissions. Its acting director-general said reports of polling-place irregularities were fewer than in previous elections.

Those allegations require caution. A party has every right to present evidence of misconduct, but an unsupported claim that a legitimate voting population stole an election attacks confidence before facts are established.

The coalition arithmetic is now a test of democratic legitimacy

Israel's voters did not produce a clean governing mandate. They produced a parliament in which compromise is necessary and in which Arab citizens may hold decisive influence. That is not a defect in the vote. It is the result of the country's proportional system and the electorate that participated in it.

The difficult question is whether political leaders will accept that arithmetic. Netanyahu can try to persuade opposition lawmakers to defect or support a broad unity government. Eisenkot can attempt a coalition or external support arrangement involving Arab-led parties. Both routes demand concessions that could anger core supporters.

Netanyahu's durability should not be underestimated. He has repeatedly survived military crises, corruption allegations, coalition collapses and mass protests. Remaining caretaker prime minister during prolonged negotiations would give him the authority and public platform of office while rivals struggle to reconcile parties with conflicting agendas.

The opposition faces its own democratic choice. It can treat Arab representatives as legitimate partners whose voters deserve influence, or preserve an informal exclusion that makes removing Netanyahu mathematically difficult. Security disagreements after Oct. 7 are real, but refusing political participation solely because citizens voted through Arab-led parties would deepen the division the election exposed.

The United States also has an interest in restraint. Washington is Israel's essential ally, but alliance should not become interference in coalition formation. American leaders can support Israel's security and insist on the integrity of its institutions without choosing which elected bloc must govern.

The coming negotiations will reveal more than who becomes prime minister. They will show whether claims of democracy extend to inconvenient outcomes, whether election complaints are evidence-based, and whether political rivals can place institutional legitimacy above personal survival.

No bloc won the authority to act as though the other half of the country does not exist. Israel's next government, if one can be formed, will need to govern a public divided by war, identity, religion and trust. The ballot count has not solved those conflicts. It has made them impossible to avoid.