Herzog picks Gadi Eisenkot to form Israel’s next government in setback for Netanyahu

Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot now holds the first chance to form Israel’s next government, a significant setback for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader.

President Isaac Herzog handed Eisenkot the mandate at a ceremony at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem at 5pm on Sunday Israel time (11pm AWST). Herzog had announced his choice on Saturday night, after meeting both Eisenkot and Netanyahu over the weekend.

“We are at one of the most vulnerable moments Israeli democracy has ever known,” Eisenkot said at the ceremony. He called for a national emergency government and said the task would require creative and unconventional political moves.

Herzog said Likud’s position as the largest party did not oblige him to give Netanyahu the first attempt, and that his decision rested on the 67 recommendations for Eisenkot against 46 for Netanyahu. He urged Eisenkot to form a government that serves all Israelis.

Eisenkot, a former chief of the Israel Defense Forces who leads the Yashar party, now has 28 days to put together a coalition, and Herzog can extend that by up to 14 days. If he fails, Herzog has three days to give another member of the Knesset the task or tell the Speaker that no one can form a government, which could send Israel back to the polls.

Why did Herzog choose Eisenkot?

In consultations with the parties earlier in the week, 67 of the Knesset’s 120 members recommended Eisenkot as prime minister. Netanyahu was recommended by 46. United Torah Judaism, an ultra-Orthodox party with seven seats that had long been allied with Netanyahu, recommended neither.

Eisenkot’s total includes the Arab-led parties Ra’am and the Joint List, which hold 19 seats between them and said they would support him from outside a government.

Herzog said after the consultations that the results looked clear but that he still had to weigh who could actually form a government, pointing to vetoes between and within the blocs.

Where do the numbers stand?

Neither side won a majority at the late October election. Netanyahu’s outgoing coalition holds 53 seats. Eisenkot’s four-party “change bloc” holds 48: his own Yashar, with 21 seats, Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu, Yair Golan’s Democrats and Naftali Bennett’s party.

That leaves Eisenkot about 13 seats short of the 61 needed to govern, and each route to a majority carries a cost.

The ultra-Orthodox parties are one option. United Torah Judaism has said it will back whichever bloc agrees to changes on military conscription for ultra-Orthodox men, an issue that has divided Israel for years. Lieberman has signalled some openness, but he has also ruled out a minority government, which means both United Torah Judaism and Shas would likely be needed. Shas recommended Netanyahu. Before the election, the leaders of Eisenkot’s bloc had pledged not to sit with the ultra-Orthodox parties.

The Arab-led parties are a second option, but Lieberman has said he opposes any government that relies on them, and Eisenkot, like Netanyahu, has ruled out bringing them into government.

A unity government with Netanyahu’s Likud is the third. The bloc’s leaders have so far ruled it out.

What has Netanyahu said?

Shortly before Herzog’s announcement, Netanyahu released a pre-recorded video calling for a “national unity” government that would include Likud and his former partners, among them the far-right Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties and the ultra-Orthodox parties. He did not say who should lead it.

He warned that a government backed by the Arab-led parties would harm Israel, saying such a government “won’t fight Hamas”.

Netanyahu has also alleged interference in the election. The acting director-general of Israel’s Central Elections Committee, Din Livne, wrote on Thursday that there was “no basis” to claims of a systematic compromise of the election’s integrity.

How did Eisenkot’s party respond?

Yashar accused Netanyahu of hypocrisy, saying he had divided Israeli society and acted “systematically and resolutely” against unity.

The party invited Likud and its partners to join a government led by Eisenkot, on condition that they cut ties with what it called extremists, accepted his four principles and served under him as prime minister.

Those principles are recognition of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, acceptance of the values of its Declaration of Independence, compulsory military or civilian service for all, and recognition of Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

Why does it matter beyond Israel?

A change of government would end the long Netanyahu era while the war involving Iran and the situation in Gaza continue to shape the Middle East. Israel’s next government will set its approach to Gaza, Iran and its relationships with allies including the United States and Australia.

The decision has been reported across Israeli and international media.

VNN will keep following the coalition talks.