Israel votes in a deeply divided election as Oct. 7 reckoning looms

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorIsraelis vote today for all one hundred twenty seats in the Knesset, and polls say no bloc is close to a clear majority.

2. 

   Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentSo what's the one-sentence version for someone who just woke up?

3. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorIt's a referendum on the failures of October seventh, and on whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stays in power, according to Fox News.

4. 

   Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentAnd how does the winning work? Is it just most votes?

5. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorNot quite. A party or bloc needs sixty-one of the one hundred twenty seats, and that's the number everyone is counting toward.

6. 

   Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentWhere does Netanyahu's side stand right now?

7. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorCNN says most polls put his bloc between forty-nine and fifty-five seats. That's short of sixty-one.

8. 

   Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentShort by six at best.

9. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorRight. And there's a new challenger. Two former prime ministers joined forces to form a center-right party called Together, or B'Yachad, NBC News reports.

10. 

    Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentOkay, so is that party winning?

11. 

    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorDepends which poll you read. Channel Twelve has Eisenkot's new Yashar party first with twenty-three seats, ahead of Likud on twenty-one.

12. 

    Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentAnd the pro-Netanyahu channel?

13. 

    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorChannel Fourteen projects Likud at thirty seats and Eisenkot's party at about twenty.

14. 

    Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentThirty versus twenty-one for the same party. Those are not two polls, those are two feeds that never cross.

15. 

    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorPollsters do differ, and CNN says so. It's a big reason nobody wants to call this one.

16. 

    Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentWho's actually in danger of getting wiped out?

17. 

    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorSmaller parties matter here. Religious Zionism, led by Bezalel Smotrich, is among those at risk of missing the threshold to enter the Knesset.

18. 

    Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentSo one party falling short could change the math for the whole bloc.

19. 

    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorThat's the thing to watch. Parties that miss the line take their votes with them, and the sixty-one gets harder.

20. 

    Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentWhat happens after the polls close?

21. 

    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorVotes get counted, then leaders try to assemble a bloc of sixty-one. If no one can, it's unclear what comes next.

22. 

    Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentSo the vote is the easy part.

23. 

    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorA hundred and twenty seats, sixty-one to win, and the polls can't agree on who's even playing.