Gadi Eisenkot has 28 days from Sunday to assemble a coalition that can win a Knesset confidence vote, after President Isaac Herzog passed over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and tasked the former military chief with forming the next government.
Herzog told Eisenkot Saturday evening he would give him the mandate, and the formal handover came Sunday. The 28 days run to about December 6, and Herzog can add up to 14, which would push the deadline to about December 20. A coalition typically needs 61 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, though a minority government can take office if it wins a confidence vote with outside support.
In the October 27 election, Netanyahu’s bloc won 53 seats and Eisenkot’s 48. Arab-led parties took a record 19, and neither bloc holds a majority. Herzog’s pick followed the party consultations, in which 67 lawmakers backed Eisenkot and only 46 backed Netanyahu.
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But the opposition leader’s path is narrow. He has ruled out Arab-led parties joining his coalition, even though Ra’am and the Joint List recommended him, so he would need the two ultra-Orthodox parties to reach 61. Shas recommended Netanyahu, while United Torah Judaism did not recommend anyone. Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman, whose party backs Eisenkot, pledged during the campaign that they would not to sit with ultra-Orthodox parties. Joint List member Ahmad Tibi expects a minority government that Arab parties would support from outside.
Eisenkot has called for a national emergency government and said Israeli democracy is at “one of its most vulnerable moments”. He has invited Likud and Religious Zionism to join on principles he laid out, saying he cannot imagine why members who believe in unity would refuse.
In a prerecorded video hours before Herzog decided, Netanyahu warned that a government backed by Arab-led parties would “dismantle the state of Israel from within.” He and allies have also claimed foreign interference in the vote. The elections commission reviewed the results and found no irregularities that undermined them, and the attorney general turned down a request to question elected officials absent supporting evidence.
If Eisenkot fails, Herzog has three days to pick another lawmaker, who would get 28 days without an extension. If that attempt also fails, 61 lawmakers have 21 days to nominate a candidate, who gets 14 days to form a government. After that, the Knesset dissolves, and Israel holds a new election within 90 days, with Netanyahu serving as caretaker prime minister.
