President Isaac Herzog has given Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party and a longtime Netanyahu critic, the first shot at forming Israel’s next government. The move comes after the October 27, 2026 election left neither Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc nor the opposition with a Knesset majority.
Eisenkot, a former IDF chief of staff, secured the mandate after parties representing 67 lawmakers recommended him to Herzog, compared with 46 recommendations for Netanyahu.
With all votes counted, the final results show Netanyahu’s coalition holding 53 seats, the Jewish opposition parties holding 48 seats, and the two Arab parties — Ra’am and the Joint List — holding a record 19 seats. Neither Netanyahu nor the opposition can reach the 61-seat threshold needed to govern on its own.
Eisenkot’s opposition alliance is built from four parties: Yashar (21 seats), Together (12 seats), Yisrael Beiteinu (7 seats), and The Democrats (8 seats), totaling 48. That’s 13 seats short of a majority, and the arithmetic to close the gap is brutal.
Two Blocs He Won’t Touch
Eisenkot has repeatedly refused to bring the Arab parties into a governing coalition. He has said those parties don’t meet his conditions, particularly on designating Hamas a terrorist organization, and has stressed he wants to form a Zionist government. The Arab parties are Islamist, anti-Zionist, and do not recognize Israel’s right to exist — a nonstarter for Eisenkot. Netanyahu has separately warned that any government relying on Arab-party support would endanger Israel. Yisrael Beiteinu, a secular Russian Jewish party that backed giving Eisenkot the first opportunity to form a government, has also long opposed any coalition dependent on Arab votes.
Eisenkot has also made ending broad draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students a non-negotiable principle — a position that puts him at odds with Shas and United Torah, the ultra-Orthodox parties controlling 13 seats. Those parties would have to accept the end of a decades-long exemption system to join him, or Eisenkot would have to abandon a stated red line.
Writing off those 13 ultra-Orthodox seats and the 19 Islamist seats leaves Eisenkot searching for 61 votes among the remaining 88 Knesset seats — 27 of which belong to Netanyahu’s own Likud party. Because Eisenkot has ruled out any arrangement with Netanyahu, the path to a majority narrows sharply.
The Clock Is Running
Under Israel’s constitutional process, Eisenkot has 28 days to assemble a governing coalition. If he fails, the mandate would likely pass to Netanyahu as the next-most-recommended candidate. If Netanyahu also fails, Herzog would be required to call a new election.
Until a government is formed, Benjamin Netanyahu remains prime minister.
