Knesset has been deadlocked since the election last month when Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition lost its majority
Israel’s president has chosen Gadi Eisenkot, the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strongest rival, to try to form a new government, after a deadlocked election that left neither man with a clear path to power.
Isaac Herzog’s office said he had informed Eisenkot, the leader of the Yashar party, on Saturday night “of his intention to task him with forming a government”.
It added that the formal appointment would take place in an official ceremony on Sunday at the president’s residence in Jerusalem.
“Now is the time to form a national emergency government. I will do everything to ensure we are worthy,” Eisenkot wrote on X in his first reaction to the announcement of his designation.
Netanyahu is fighting to hold on to office after his religious-nationalist coalition lost its majority in an election on 27 October but still emerged as the largest bloc in parliament.
Should Eisenkot succeed in forming a coalition, he would take over as prime minister from Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving premier.
Eisenkot’s wide-ranging opposition bloc won 48 of the Israeli parliament’s 120 seats in October elections, while Netanyahu’s camp secured 53, leaving neither with a majority.
During party consultations with Herzog, 66-year-old Eisenkot received the endorsements of both Arab-majority lists, who could now play kingmakers after making unprecedented gains in the vote.
Eisenkot faces significant challenges on the road to becoming prime minister. He has three options: a power-sharing agreement with Netanyahu, support from Arab-led parties – something several members of his bloc do not support – or an agreement with the ultra-Orthodox parties, which demand military exemptions for their community.
Eisenkot has laid out a series of conditions for any Arab party to join his coalition, including recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and declaring the Palestinian militant group Hamas a terrorist organisation.
One of Eisenkot’s partners, the more conservative Yisrael Beytenu party, already has said it will not join a coalition with Arab-led parties.
Eisenkot, a former army chief, and his partners made equal military service a central part of their campaign. Specifically, they are seeking an end to the longstanding draft exemptions enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox.
Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed the election was “stolen” by Arab parties, which rallied their supporters to vote in large numbers. But he has offered little to no evidence to support the claims.
Netanyahu is expected to continue his pressure tactics against Eisenkot, saying any alliance with the Arab parties would be an act of betrayal.
Israel’s Shin Bet security agency has launched an investigation into possible foreign interference in the vote, but the country’s Central Elections Commission – and Herzog – say the vote was valid and even if wrongdoing was found, it did not have a significant impact on the result.
Netanyahu called for a “national unity” government with Eisenkot on Saturday night but it remains unclear whether the two rivals could agree on a power-sharing agreement, and these types of coalition governments are notoriously fragile and often collapse.
Eisenkot, the military chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, has set out to unite Israelis after Netanyahu’s divisive tenure, under which the country moved sharply to the right.
He has vowed to crack down on extremist West Bank settlers who have attacked Palestinians with impunity, decrying recent incidents as “Jewish terror” abetted by Netanyahu’s government.
But he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state and vowed to end Hamas’s rule in Gaza and destroy the Islamist movement’s military wing.
Commanding the military during the 2006 war with Hezbollah, Eisenkot devised the so-called “Dahiya doctrine”. The idea, named after a Beirut suburb heavily damaged in that war, involves Israel vowing to use massive force against civilian infrastructure in areas controlled by the Lebanese militant movement Hezbollah.
After his appointment, Eisenkot will have 28 days to come up with the 61 votes needed for a government. If he comes up short, Herzog can provide a 14-day extension before he has to offer the mandate to someone else.
If neither side succeeds, Israel will head to fresh elections. The country held five elections between 2019 and 2022 due to repeated deadlocks.
