JERUSALEM (The Thursday Times) — Israel’s five main opposition leaders agreed on Tuesday to recommend former army chief Gadi Eisenkot as the next prime minister, a day before President Isaac Herzog begins consultations on who should form a government.
Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, Avigdor Liberman and Yair Golan held their first joint meeting since the October 27 vote, in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv. In a joint statement they said all their parties would recommend Eisenkot to Herzog, and that negotiating teams would start drafting policy guidelines and coalition agreements at once.
“The party leaders are coordinated and will act immediately to replace the ‘Oct. 7 government’ with a national emergency government,” the statement said. “We don’t have time — we must act with great urgency,” Bennett told reporters.
The arithmetic remains the problem. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc won 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, the opposition 48 and Arab-led parties 19, with 61 needed for a majority. The opposition cannot reach that number without Arab-led parties, or without defections.
The leaders are split on that question. They stood by four principles set out by Eisenkot, including that every party in government must recognise Israel as a Jewish state and label Hamas a terrorist group, conditions that could shut out some Arab-led parties. Golan is the only one openly in favour of an alliance with them. Liberman firmly rules it out, though he also wants to avoid another election.
Netanyahu said on Monday he wanted a “broad national government” under his own leadership, and has ruled out working with Arab-led lists. No opposition leader has shown any interest in joining him.
Wednesday is also the day the results are due to be certified. The election committee’s chairman has rejected a demand from Netanyahu’s Likud party to delay it over unproven claims of foreign interference. The new Knesset is due to take office by November 10.
