What changed
President Isaac Herzog has tasked opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot with trying to form Israel’s next coalition government after last week’s election produced no parliamentary majority.
Eisenkot has 28 days, with a possible 14-day extension. He received recommendations from 67 lawmakers, ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 46, even though Netanyahu’s bloc won more seats: 53, compared with 48 for Eisenkot’s bloc and 19 for two Arab-led alliances.
Why it matters
Eisenkot now has the mandate, but not an obvious route to the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-member Knesset.
The numbers leave three difficult paths: a unity government with Netanyahu, a right-wing coalition strengthened by defectors from Eisenkot’s bloc, or an Eisenkot-led administration supported by Arab parties. Eisenkot and nearly all of his bloc have previously refused to govern with those parties. An agreement with ultra-Orthodox parties would also be difficult.
My read is that Herzog’s decision turns an election deadlock into a negotiation with a deadline, not a settled transfer of power. Eisenkot must now turn 67 recommendations into an actual governing coalition while avoiding another election. Israel has already endured five elections between 2019 and 2022 as rival blocs repeatedly failed to cooperate.
A national-unity government has precedent: in 2020, Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz agreed to share power after three deadlocked elections. But whether today’s leading blocs can repeat that arrangement, or whether Eisenkot can build a government without Arab-led parties, remains unresolved.
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