Israeli President Isaac Herzog has announced that he will task opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot with forming a new coalition government. The decision comes after Herzog held talks with political parties, as neither Eisenkot’s bloc nor that of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed to secure a majority in the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset, following last week’s election.
Eisenkot will now have 28 days to try to form a new administration, with the option of a 14-day extension. “Now is the time to form a national emergency government. I will do everything to ensure that we are worthy,” the former army chief wrote on the platform X. It is important to note that no political party in Israel has ever won an absolute majority, meaning all governments have been coalitions.
Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party and its far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies won 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Meanwhile, Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar party and three other Jewish opposition parties in his bloc secured 48 seats. Two Arab-led alliances, the Joint Arab List and the Joint List, together won an unprecedented 19 seats, following a rise in Arab voter turnout. This positions them as potential “kingmakers”. However, all Jewish parties except one pledged before the election not to cooperate with them to form a government.
Herzog said that, after consulting all parties during the week, he would give Eisenkot the first opportunity to form a government. A statement from the president’s office said he had informed both Eisenkot and Netanyahu of the decision. Following consultations with the delegations of the new Knesset members, Eisenkot received 67 recommendations for the post of prime minister, while Netanyahu received 46. The president has broad discretion to choose someone he believes has the best chance of building a coalition and is not obliged to choose the leader of the party with the most seats.
The election results pointed to three possible options for forming a government: a national unity administration including both Netanyahu and Eisenkot, a right-wing coalition including Netanyahu and defectors from Eisenkot’s bloc, or a government led by Eisenkot and supported by Arab parties. Eisenkot and every member of his bloc, with one exception, had previously refused to join a government with Arab parties, but there has been speculation that a deal could be reached. He may also try to reach an agreement with the ultra-Orthodox parties, but even that would be difficult.
There is a precedent for a unity government. In 2020, after three deadlocked elections, Netanyahu and his centrist rival Benny Gantz agreed to a power-sharing deal in which the leadership rotated between the two. During his consultations with the parties, Herzog had said that, to prevent another round of elections and to build a stable government, he expected that “factions and their representatives understand that, in the current reality, not every commitment and promise can be fulfilled”. In the 2019-2022 period, one of the most politically fragmented periods in Israeli politics, five separate elections were held, as Netanyahu and his rivals repeatedly struggled to cooperate.
Taken from BBC News