Naftali Bennett
Naftali BennettKobi Richter / TPS

The Yamina party held a meeting in Ra'anana Wednesday afternoon to discuss the results of yesterday's election and the party's next steps going forward.

Party chairman Naftali Bennett summed up the campaign and informed the faction members that "Yamina will wait for the final results and will act responsibly to lead the State of Israel to stability and functionality."

The counting of votes continues, with neither side currently demonstrating a strong-enough showing to form a coalition.

According to the current count, the right-wing bloc under Prime Minister Netanyahu has only 59 seats, two less than the 61 needed to form a coalition. This is even with the participation of the Yamina party.

Political sources have told Arutz Sheva that Netanyahu is looking into the possibility of entering into negotiations with the United Arab List (Ra’am), which is led by MK Mansour Abbas, to secure their support for the formation of a new Netanyahu-led government. According to the sources, Netanyahu would seek to form a minority government which would rely on the votes of the UAL from outside the coalition.

Another possibility being examined by Netanyahu is exerting pressure on right-wing MKs from the anti-Netanyahu bloc in the New Hope and Blue and White parties to join the coalition to form a majority government of 61 MKs.

New Hope chairman Gideon Sa'ar is expected to hold fast to his campaign promise to refuse to join a Netanyahu-led government, but the Likud hopes that it can make tempting offers to compel New Hope members Zeev Elkin and Yifat Shasha Biton to leave the opposition. In addition, the Likud is looking to make an offer to MK Pnina Tamano-Shata from Blue and White.

Just two days ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu was interviewed by the Knesset channel and pledged not to cooperate with Mansour Abbas and the UAL party: "I pledge you now that I will not form a government with the support of Mansour Abbas," Netanyahu said.

With 88% of the vote counted, the Likud currently stands at 30 seats. Yesh Atid has 17 seats, Shas nine seats, Blue and White eight seats, United Torah Judaism seven seats, Yamina seven seats, Labor seven seats, Yisrael Beytenu seven seats, Religious Zionism six seats, the Joint Arab List six seats, New Hope six seats, Meretz five seats, and the United Arab List five seats.