Israel’s president gives opposition leader Eisenkot first chance to build coalition

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has chosen opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot to make the first attempt at forming a government after an election produced no parliamentary majority. Eisenkot will formally receive the mandate at a ceremony on Sunday and will have 28 days to assemble the 61 votes required in the 120-seat Knesset. Herzog’s office said Eisenkot had been informed of the president’s intention to task him with forming a government.

The decision followed consultations with incoming lawmakers. According to the BBC, Eisenkot received recommendations from parties representing 67 lawmakers, compared with 46 for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even though Netanyahu’s bloc won more seats in the election. Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar party and three other Jewish opposition parties secured 48 seats.

Netanyahu’s Likud and its far-right and ultra-Orthodox allies won 53. Two Arab-led alliances together won 19 seats, an unprecedented result according to the BBC, making them potential kingmakers but also complicating negotiations because most Jewish parties had pledged before the vote not to rely on them. Eisenkot, a former military chief, said on X: “Now is the time to form a national emergency government.

I will do everything to ensure we are worthy.” His bloc has opposed returning Netanyahu to office, while Netanyahu has called for a unity government made up of what he describes as Zionist parties and has criticised the possibility of cooperation with Arab lists. The potential governing combinations remain uncertain. The BBC identified three broad possibilities: a unity administration bringing together Netanyahu and Eisenkot, a right-wing coalition involving defectors from Eisenkot’s bloc, or an Eisenkot-led government supported by Arab parties.

Eisenkot could also seek an arrangement with ultra-Orthodox parties, although that would create tensions over military-service policy. Those policy disputes are particularly sensitive after years of war and repeated reserve service. Channels Television reported that Eisenkot has proposed national service for all Israelis, with citizens able to choose a civilian alternative to military service.

Opposition leader Avigdor Liberman, who had campaigned against exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews, recently said he was open to discussing legislation that would preserve them, illustrating how coalition bargaining could alter previous commitments. Herzog can grant Eisenkot a 14-day extension if he does not succeed within the initial period. If no candidate forms a government, the mandate must be offered to someone else and Israel could face another election.

The country held five elections between 2019 and 2022 amid repeated deadlock. A successful Eisenkot coalition would remove Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, whose religious-nationalist government lost its majority despite his bloc remaining the largest in the election.