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Israel's president announced that he would first nominate opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot as the person responsible for forming a new coalition government.
President Yitzhak Herzog has been holding discussions with each political party since last week's general election. This is because neither the Eisenkot camp nor the camp led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured a majority of seats in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.
Eisenkot will attempt to form a new government within the next 28 days, with the option to extend the deadline by another 14 days if necessary.
Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff, wrote to
In Israel, no party has ever won a single majority, and all governments have been formed in the form of coalitions.
Prime Minister Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party and far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties secured 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. On the other hand, the centrist Yashar Party, led by Eisenkot, and three other Jewish opposition parties in his camp won a total of 48 seats.
The two Arab-led coalitions, the United Arab List and the Joint List, secured 19 seats, the largest ever, thanks to a surge in voter turnout among Arab voters.
Accordingly, they are now in a position to influence the direction of the formation of the next government. However, all but one of the Jewish parties announced before the election that they would not form a government with Arab parties.
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President Herzog announced this week that after consulting with all political parties, he had decided to give Eisenkot priority in forming a government.
The President's Office said in a statement that President Herzog notified both Eisenkot and Prime Minister Netanyahu of the decision.
According to the statement, after consultations with representatives of the incoming Knesset members, Eisenkot received 67 recommendations as a candidate for prime minister, while Prime Minister Netanyahu received 46 recommendations.
Israel's president has broad discretion to nominate the person he believes has the best chance of forming a coalition government. It is not necessary to nominate the leader of the party with the most seats.
The options for forming a government according to the results of this general election have been narrowed down to three. It can be a coalition government in which Prime Minister Netanyahu and Eisenkot participate together, a right-wing coalition government in which Prime Minister Netanyahu joins hands with lawmakers who broke away from Eisenkot's camp, or a government led by Eisenkot based on the support of Arab political parties.
Eisenkot and all but one of his camp's lawmakers have previously said they would not form a government with Arab parties, but there is speculation that the two sides may reach an agreement.
Eisenkot could also try to negotiate with ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties, but this is unlikely to be easy either.
There is a precedent for a national coalition government being formed. With three general elections in 2020 deadlocked in forming parliament, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his centrist rival Benny Gantz agreed to share power. The method involved two people taking turns as prime minister.
In the process of consulting with each political party, President Herzog said that in order to prevent another general election and form a stable government, "each political faction and its representatives must understand that not all pledges and promises can be fulfilled in the current political reality."
From 2019 to 2022, when Israeli politics were severely divided, a total of five general elections were held as Prime Minister Netanyahu and his rivals repeatedly failed to cooperate.
