Israeli President Isaac Herzog announced Saturday that former military chief Gadi Eisenkot will get the first chance to form Israel’s next government, a direct setback for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nearly two weeks after national elections.
Eisenkot, who leads the opposition Yashar party, will formally receive the mandate Sunday at 5 p.m. local time. He’ll have 28 days to build a coalition, with Herzog able to extend that window by up to 14 days. Netanyahu stays on as prime minister in the meantime.
The math is tight on both sides. Eisenkot pulled recommendations from 67 of the Knesset’s 120 incoming members during Herzog’s consultations, but his four-party “change bloc” only controls 48 seats outright. Netanyahu’s outgoing coalition holds 53. Neither side clears the 61-seat majority threshold.
Netanyahu’s Likud won 27 seats in the October 27 election, the most of any party. But his bloc fell short of a majority despite beating expectations. During consultations, 46 lawmakers backed Netanyahu, while seven members of United Torah Judaism, an ultra-Orthodox party that’s traditionally allied with him, refused to recommend either man.
Eisenkot’s 67 recommendations only reached that number with help from 19 lawmakers belonging to the Arab parties Ra’am and the Joint List. That support is now the central problem standing between Eisenkot and a working government.
Netanyahu Warns of “National Suicide”
Netanyahu didn’t mince words in a video statement Saturday, warning that a government propped up by Arab parties would cripple Israel’s ability to fight Hamas and confront Iran.
“A government dependent on terror supporters will not fight terror,” Netanyahu said. “With such a government, Israel simply will not survive.”
He called instead for a national unity government built from his existing coalition partners plus other Zionist parties.
“Therefore, there is only one choice: not national suicide, but national unity,” Netanyahu said. “A national unity government will permanently remove the nuclear threat from Iran, preserve Israel as a Jewish state, and bring unity among us.”
The stakes around Arab-party involvement carry extra weight because this is Israel’s first parliamentary election since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre. Ra’am, an Islamist party led by Mansour Abbas, previously joined former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s coalition in 2021. The Joint List, a coalition of mostly Arab factions including communist and Arab nationalist parties, has never joined an Israeli government.
Both parties recommended Eisenkot during consultations, but neither has committed to actually joining his government or guaranteeing the votes to keep it standing.
During this week’s consultations, Herzog asked Ra’am’s Abbas point-blank whether he considers Hamas a terrorist organization. Abbas wouldn’t give a yes-or-no answer, saying afterward he needed room to act as a bridge while protecting himself and his family. That non-answer is a direct problem for Eisenkot, who has made recognizing Hamas as a terrorist group and committing to dismantle its military and governing power a condition for joining his government. His other conditions: recognizing Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, accepting the Declaration of Independence’s principles, and backing mandatory military, national, or civilian service for all citizens.
After Herzog’s announcement, Eisenkot said “now is the time for the formation of a national emergency government” and said he’d pursue a deal with parties willing to meet those four conditions. His Yashar party rejected Netanyahu’s unity offer outright and instead invited Likud to join a government under Eisenkot — on the condition Likud drop its current alliances and accept the same four principles.
Eisenkot’s Own Coalition Problem
Eisenkot’s path isn’t clean either. Leaders within his own four-party bloc campaigned against governing with either Arab parties or ultra-Orthodox factions — the exact groups he may now need to replace Netanyahu.
Avigdor Liberman, chairman of the nationalist Yisrael Beytenu party, has already ruled out backing a minority government that relies on Ra’am and Joint List abstentions, insisting on a full 61-seat coalition instead. On Friday, Liberman said he’s open to reversing his long-held refusal to govern with ultra-Orthodox parties and willing to make concessions on military conscription — a defining issue of the campaign.
That opening could bring United Torah Judaism into talks. Its seven seats would push Eisenkot’s bloc to 55 — still six short of a majority. Shas, another ultra-Orthodox party usually aligned with Netanyahu, has publicly called reports that it’s eyeing Eisenkot’s camp “complete fake news.”
Even Liberman’s proposed concessions could run into trouble inside the bloc. Yair Golan, chairman of the left-wing Democrats party, says he’s willing to work with ultra-Orthodox factions but is demanding military conscription and greater workforce participation in return.
None of this ends Netanyahu’s premiership. He keeps the office while negotiations play out, and if Eisenkot can’t pull a coalition together within his window, Herzog could hand the mandate right back to Netanyahu — or to someone else. Israel has cycled through repeated elections in recent years precisely because of standoffs like this one.
