Israel woke up on Thursday to allegations by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's Likud party that foreign actors may have sought to influence voter mobilization efforts in Arab communities during this week's legislative election.

No'am Sohlberg, the Supreme Court judge who heads Israel's Central Election Committee , sent a letter to Israel's internal security agency Shin Bet to look into the Likud's claims.

According to Likud's statement, Arab parties Ra'am and the Joint List — which received a record share of the vote, mostly due to unprecedented turnout in communities of Arab and Palestinians with Israeli citizenship — allegedly used "severe criminal offenses" to spur voters to go to the polls, including bribery, threats and other forms of election fraud.

"Severe suspicions were brought to my attention about improper intervention in the elections by foreign funding by outside actors that act against the Israeli interest," Sohlberg wrote in the letter, adding that he was "unable to testify" as to…