Israeli president tasks Gadi Eisenkot with forming new government

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has chosen Gadi Eisenkot to have the first opportunity to form a new Israeli government, according to a statement released by his office on Saturday evening.

The statement said Eisenkot was informed of Herzog's "intention to task him with forming a government" and would be invited to the president's residence, where a formal ceremony will take place on Sunday.

The decision comes after a neck-and-neck race with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel's October election. Eisenkot's wide-ranging group, fashioned in opposition to Netanyahu, won 48 of the Israeli parliament's 120 seats in October's elections. Netanyahu's camp secured 53, leaving neither with the required majority of 61 seats.

Eisenkot is the leader of the centrist Yashar party and heads an anti-Netanyahu alliance. While Netanyahu ruled out working with Arab parties to gain a majority, both Arab majority lists had announced during the week that they would recommend Eisenkot to be next prime minister.

The move is the first step toward what will almost certainly be complicated coalition talks. Should Eisenkot succeed in forming a government, he would take over as prime minister from Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving premier, whose religious-nationalist coalition lost its majority in the election, despite emerging as the largest bloc.

Eisenkot faces a tricky path to forming a government, involving difficult constellations of Arab and ultra-Orthodox parties. He will have 28 days to round up the 61 votes needed to form a government. Herzog can provide a 14-day extension if Eisenkot comes up short before the mandate must be offered to someone else. If no candidate succeeds, Israel will head to fresh elections.

In discussions with the president this week, representatives from most of Israel's main parties recommended Eisenkot be tasked with assembling a new government, but putting together the parliamentary majority needed remains fraught. Netanyahu and his allies lost their majority in parliament in last month's elections. But the bloc led by Eisenkot also didn't win a majority. That left Arab-led parties, which made historic gains, as potential but politically fraught kingmakers.

An Arab party has been part of a governing coalition just once in Israel's history. Forming such an alliance could be especially divisive for Eisenkot after more than three years of war in Gaza.

Netanyahu has been on a campaign to head off any alliance between Eisenkot and the Arab-led parties, including unsubstantiated claims that Arab parties "stole" the elections. Shortly before Herzog's announcement, he called for a "national unity government" in a video statement and warned against "hastily swearing in a government with terrorist supporters" – language he uses to refer to the Arab-led parties.

Netanyahu and his allies have repeatedly portrayed the Arab-led parties as a threat to national security, while Eisenkot has indicated a willingness to partner with them under certain conditions, including calling Hamas a terrorist group that needs to be destroyed.

Eisenkot and Netanyahu, whose Likud is the single largest party in parliament, could seek to create a broad unity government with major Jewish parties. However, the men have deep differences over many issues that will be difficult to bridge. That includes Netanyahu's reliance on religious parties that demand draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men, as well as Netanyahu's opposition to a formal investigation into the failures surrounding the Oct. 7 attacks.

Eisenkot could also seek to create a "minority" government — shored up by external support from Arab parties that are not formal members of his coalition. However, other members of his bloc have said they would reject such an alliance.

Eisenkot's party, Yashar, slammed the prime minister's video with a statement posted on X and urged members of his party, Likud, to disavow their alliance with "radical parties," in an apparent reference to the far-right parties in his religious-nationalist base. The statement argued that Eisenkot would only include parties and parliament members who support its principles.

Sources

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