Israel’s President Says Will Task Eisenkot With Forming Government

Tel Aviv, MINA – Israeli President Isaac Herzog will task Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot with forming the next government, his spokesperson said on Saturday, according to Anadolu Agency.

The spokesperson said in a statement that Herzog informed Eisenkot of his intention to task him with forming the government. Herzog has invited Eisenkot to the president’s residence, where he will formally hand him the mandate at 5 p.m. local time on Sunday.

During consultations, parliamentary factions representing 67 Knesset members recommended that Herzog give the mandate to Eisenkot. Factions representing 46 lawmakers recommended Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud leader. One seven-member faction declined to recommend a candidate.

The spokesperson said Herzog held in-depth talks in recent days with figures from across the political spectrum, including Netanyahu and Eisenkot.

Once the president assigns the mandate, the lawmaker has 28 days to form a coalition. If more time is needed, the president can grant an extension of up to 14 days.

On Thursday, after concluding consultations with parliamentary factions, Herzog said he would hold additional talks before making a decision. He said the number of recommendations alone could not determine who was able to form a government, given disagreements and competing demands about Cabinet posts among the factions.

Israel held parliamentary elections on October 27, in which neither of the two main blocs secured the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-member Knesset. Netanyahu’s Likud won 27 seats, while Eisenkot’s Yashar won 21. Final results gave Netanyahu’s bloc 53 seats and Israeli parties opposed to him 48, while the two Arab lists, the Joint List and Ra’am, won 19 seats between them. Together, the parties opposed to Netanyahu held 67 seats and recommended Eisenkot for the mandate.

That 67 figure is the source of Eisenkot’s mandate but also its central weakness. Several major parties in his camp oppose forming a government that includes Arab parties, which means the 19 seats held by the Joint List and Ra’am may have been counted in the recommendations without being available as coalition partners. Eisenkot must therefore find a way to secure a majority among Jewish parties or form a minority government that relies on outside support from the Arab lists.

The seven lawmakers from the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, part of Netanyahu’s bloc, declined to recommend either candidate amid disagreements with their allies about military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews. That abstention illustrates the internal strains within Netanyahu’s bloc and the difficulty of assembling any coalition from the current Knesset.

Eisenkot will also have to bridge differences among the parties opposed to Netanyahu on issues ranging from Palestinian statehood to religion and state to economic policy. Likud remains the largest single party in the Knesset, and Netanyahu’s government would remain in a caretaker capacity until a new government is formed.

Netanyahu is one of Israel’s longest-serving prime ministers, having first held office from 1996 to 1999, returned in 2009 and served until 2021, then taken office again in December 2022. He has been on trial in Israel since 2020 on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three corruption cases, and he denies the charges. The International Criminal Court also issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024 for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

If Eisenkot fails to form a government within the initial 28 days and any extension Herzog grants, Israel could enter another round of political consultations. The outcome will shape policy on Gaza, Lebanon, the occupied West Bank, and relations with the United States, where a Democratic Congress takes office in January, and it comes as Israel’s military operations continue across multiple fronts and a fragile ceasefire in Gaza remains in place.[]

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)