Eisenkot to be tasked with forming next Israeli government

In a setback to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his main rival will be tasked with forming the next Israeli government, placing him one step closer to ousting Israel’s longest-serving leader, even as the path remains complicated.

Gadi Eisenkot, a retired military chief who led the centrist Yashar party in the October 27 election, will have up to six weeks to try and assemble a coalition to replace Netanyahu. But his path to power is fraught with political obstacles and divisions within the opposition itself.

President Isaac Herzog will officially give Eisenkot the mandate to form a government on Sunday, his office said in a statement. Herzog’s decision followed two days of consultations last week with all parties elected to the Knesset.

Eisenkot secured the support of 67 members of the incoming Knesset, including 19 from the two Arab parties. Netanyahu received just 46 recommendations. A notable crack in his once-loyal bloc was exposed during the consultations when United Torah Judaism, a traditional Netanyahu ally, declined to recommend him.

Yet Herzog’s decision does not automatically remove Netanyahu from power. Eisenkot has a mandate and a parliamentary majority on paper, but not yet a governing coalition.

Eisenkot is pushing to form what he calls a “national emergency government” and to swear in a minority government as soon as possible. It would comprise the four Jewish opposition parties, which together hold 48 seats: his own Yashar; Together, led by former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid; Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu, and the left-wing Democrats, led by Yair Golan.

He has set four conditions for joining: recognizing Israel as a Jewish, democratic, liberal, and egalitarian state, commitment to the values of the Declaration of Independence, universal service – whether military, national, or civilian – and recognition of Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The last condition effectively rules out the Arab parties from sitting in the Cabinet. But they could still support the government from outside, providing a parliamentary safety net. Israeli law requires only a simple majority to establish a government. Removing one is far more difficult, requires an absolute majority of 61 votes who support an alternative government. (The Knesset has 120 seats.)

Eisenkot’s central obstacle is Avigdor Liberman. The Yisrael Beitenu leader and, at different times, former defense, foreign affairs and finance minister, has ruled out any government dependent on the Arab parties. A minority government, he argues, will be short-lived, and in the long run, will only strengthen Netanyahu. “We’ll have Netanyahu come back with 70 seats for another four years, and from there it’s a short road to annihilation,” Liberman wrote on X on Friday.

Instead, Liberman proposed a different route. Dropping his years-long veto on the ultra-Orthodox parties, he urged to make a “maximum effort” to form a coalition of 61 lawmakers with the two ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, and without the Joint List and Ra’am. Once it is formed, he added, three or four lawmakers from the Likud may defect.

That plan, however, clashes with one of the opposition’s core commitments: to end the blanket draft exemption for ultra-Orthodox men from mandatory military service. The ultra-Orthodox parties are pressing for legislation that would enshrine the exemption, and Eisenkot, Liberman and the rest of the opposition pledged universal service throughout the campaign. Moreover, one of the ultra-Orthodox parties remains loyal to Netanyahu.

Netanyahu, who lost his parliamentary majority, is also applying heavy pressure against any Jewish-Arab political cooperation. He is challenging the election results and claims the vote was “stolen” by Arab parties by bribery and foreign funding. David Zini, his loyalist Shin Bet director, has been pushing to investigate Arab politicians without any public evidence.

In a video statement Saturday, Netanyahu warned that if a minority government is formed with the Arab parties’ support, Israel will “simply not survive.” Instead, he called for a national unity government with his entire bloc, which includes far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties. Netanyahu called for “all Zionist parties that want to preserve our one and only state of the Jewish people.”

Eisenkot dismissed his message as a “pathetic spin.” In a statement, the Yashar party said, “If the Likud wants a broad unity government, it is more than welcome to announce the dissolution of the alliance with the extremists and enter a government under Prime Minister Eisenkot.”

Eisenkot’s first test comes Tuesday with the swearing in of the new Knesset. The opposition intends to replace Netanyahu’s Knesset speaker, weakening his grip on power and allowing the opposition parties to begin taking some actions, such as forming a state commission of inquiry into the security failures that led to the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas. Starting Sunday, Eisenkot will have 28 days to negotiate with other parties over Cabinet posts, budgets and policies, with a possible 14-day extension. If he fails, the mandate passes to Netanyahu for another four weeks.

Eisenkot said on Friday he intends to form a government as quickly as possible, framing the moment as a national emergency. “A situation in which a caretaker prime minister in the minority, who has lost the trust of the people in such an extreme way, continues to operate the security system and law enforcement authorities, is a dangerous situation that must not continue even for one more day,” he wrote on X.