JERUSALEM (The Thursday Times) — President Isaac Herzog on Sunday formally gave Gadi Eisenkot the mandate to form Israel’s next government, starting a 28-day clock for the Yashar party leader to build a coalition that would replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At a ceremony at the President’s Residence, Eisenkot said that after “the difficult years we have endured”, Israelis had to “do things differently this time”, and that the next government had to serve all Israelis, ending the days when citizens felt shut out by their own government. His door was open, he said, and his hand extended to anyone willing to take “a courageous step” for the State of Israel. Anyone who sabotaged the government’s formation for personal reasons, he warned, would be remembered as someone who “failed to save Israel during a time of emergency”.
The numbers: in Herzog’s consultations last week, parties holding 67 of the Knesset’s 120 seats recommended Eisenkot and parties with 46 recommended Netanyahu. Netanyahu’s bloc won 53 seats in last month’s election and the opposition bloc 48, with the Arab parties Ra’am and the Joint List taking a record 19 between them. Both Arab parties recommended Eisenkot, but that does not commit them to joining his government. United Torah Judaism, with seven seats and a long-time partner of Netanyahu, recommended no one.
The clock: Eisenkot has 28 days, which Herzog can extend by up to 14. If he fails, Herzog has three days to give another lawmaker 28 days, with no extension. If that also fails, a majority of 61 lawmakers can ask the president to task a candidate of their choice, who would have 14 days. If every attempt fails, the Knesset is dissolved and Israel goes to another election. Netanyahu’s government stays on as a caretaker until a new one wins a confidence vote.
The hard part: Eisenkot, a former army chief of staff, has proposed a “national emergency government”. Some of his allies have ruled out relying on the Arab parties, while United Torah Judaism has tied its support for any government to keeping military service exemptions for yeshiva students. Netanyahu has called instead for a national unity government that would include his ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox partners, an offer Yashar has dismissed as hypocrisy.
