Israel Affirms Election Results as UAE Urges Iran Diplomacy in Bahrain

In Tel Aviv, the head of Israel's elections committee, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, flanked by Israel's attorney general and the head of the Shin Bet security service, affirmed Sunday that last week's parliamentary election results will stand and be certified this week ahead of coalition talks with President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press on KCBS Radio. Simultaneously in Manama, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates presidential adviser Anwar Gargash told the annual Manama Dialogue security summit that Gulf nations hope Qatar-led mediation can avert a new round of confrontation between the United States and Iran, The Associated Press reported on KCBS Radio.

Israeli Officials Affirm 120-Seat Knesset Tally Ahead of Herzog Consultations

In last week's Israeli election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's parliamentary bloc fell to 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, down from a peak of 68 seats in the outgoing parliament. A rival bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot won 48 seats, while Arab-led parties — representing Israel's Arab citizens, who make up 20% of the population — won 19 seats, including 8 seats for Mansour Abbas's Ra'am party and 11 seats for Yousef Jabareen's Joint List.

Although Netanyahu's Likud party alleged without presenting evidence that Arab-led parties "stole" the vote and pointed to the arrests of 3 political activists with envelopes of cash before polls opened on Oct. 27 (followed by 4 more arrests 2 days later), an Israeli judge on Sunday ordered 1 of the 3 initial suspects released under conditions, placed 1 on house arrest for 8 days, and extended the third suspect's detention by 2 days. Justice Sohlberg stated that even if foreign-interference allegations investigated by Shin Bet (which Qatar has denied) were substantiated, "this would not undermine the integrity of the electoral process or the election results as a whole." President Herzog will begin meeting with elected parties on Wednesday to designate a prime ministerial candidate to form a coalition.

UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt Call for Diplomatic Breakthrough at Manama Dialogue

At the 3-day Manama Dialogue in Bahrain — organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) — UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash, Bahraini Foreign Affairs Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty warned that a renewed military conflict with Iran would be destructive for the region.

According to IISS figures cited at the forum, after the war began on Feb. 28 with joint U.S. and Israeli strikes and before an April ceasefire took hold, the UAE faced more than 3,000 Iranian drone and ballistic missile attacks (most intercepted), while Iran fired 500 drones and nearly 200 ballistic missiles toward Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. While Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed that Iranian negotiators are in Qatar discussing a proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Gargash urged Washington and Tehran to bridge their differences through diplomacy and called on the 6-member Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman) to strengthen collective defense coordination.