President Isaac Herzog has chosen opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot to make the first attempt at forming Israel’s next government, handing Benjamin Netanyahu a significant political setback after last month’s deadlocked election.
Herzog announced the decision on Saturday, after a week of consultations with the parties represented in the Knesset. Eisenkot will formally receive the mandate at a ceremony at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem at 5 p.m. local time on Sunday.
Eisenkot, a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, secured the recommendations of 67 of the 120 members of the Knesset, against 46 for Netanyahu. The remaining seven lawmakers, from the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, recommended neither candidate.
The October 27 election left parliament without a clear majority. Netanyahu’s right-wing and religious bloc won 53 seats, while the four-party opposition alliance led by Eisenkot won 48. Arab-led parties, representing Palestinian citizens of Israel, won a record 19 seats, leaving 61 — the threshold for a majority — out of reach for either main bloc.
Eisenkot leads the centrist Yashar party, which he founded on an anti-corruption and government reform platform. He served as Israel’s top military commander from 2015 to 2019 and later joined Netanyahu’s emergency war cabinet after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, leaving the following year after accusing the prime minister of failing to make progress towards ending the war in Gaza and securing the release of hostages. He lost his son Gal, a reservist killed in Gaza, as well as two nephews, during the war.
He will now have 28 days to assemble a coalition, with a possible extension of up to 14 days. That gives him up to six weeks to negotiate with rival parties and secure the 61 seats needed for a parliamentary majority.
The arithmetic is far from straightforward. The 67 recommendations Eisenkot received do not amount to a governing coalition: they include support from the Arab-led Joint List and the Islamist Ra’am party, and Eisenkot has ruled out bringing Arab parties into government as formal coalition partners. He will also need to win over ultra-Orthodox factions or parties from Netanyahu’s former coalition.
If Eisenkot fails to form a government within the allotted time, Herzog can give another lawmaker a chance. If those efforts also fail, Israel could face another election. Netanyahu would remain caretaker prime minister in the meantime.
Sources: Associated Press via WAMC/NPR; The Guardian; Reuters via The Business Standard
