Eisenkot Gets First Chance, but Netanyahu Still in Frey
Gadi Eisenkot has the first chance to end Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest term as Israel’s prime minister. To succeed, however, he must persuade his allies to accept compromises they campaigned against, or risk handing Netanyahu another opportunity to stay in power.
President Isaac Herzog announced his choice on Saturday, inviting the former military chief to receive the government-forming mandate on Sunday, November 8. The decision followed an October 27 election that denied both camps a parliamentary majority.
“Now is the time to form a national emergency government,” Eisenkot wrote on X after the announcement. His difficulty begins with the support that secured him the nomination. Eisenkot’s four-party bloc holds 48 seats in the 120-member Knesset. Two Arab parties, with another 19 seats, endorsed him, bringing his backing to 67 lawmakers. But agreement on giving him the first attempt has yet to become agreement on keeping a government in office.
That distinction leaves Netanyahu’s opponents confronting the question they could postpone during the campaign: what are they prepared to concede to remove him?
A Majority Divided Over Its Own Partners
A minority administration relying on Arab parties for parliamentary support offers one route. The parties could help sustain Eisenkot’s government without taking cabinet posts.
Yet Avigdor Lieberman’s Israel Our Home, a member of Eisenkot’s bloc, has repeatedly rejected such an arrangement since the election. The Democrats have publicly called for Arab inclusion, exposing a disagreement within the prospective administration before coalition negotiations have produced a deal.
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For Eisenkot, the problem is particularly awkward. Arab lawmakers helped secure his opportunity to govern, but accepting their support would require him and resistant allies to reconsider their positions.
An agreement with the two ultra-Orthodox parties offers another possibility. Their combined 13 seats would bring his bloc to exactly 61, the narrowest parliamentary majority.
The price would involve concessions over military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox seminary students. Eisenkot and his partners have criticized those exemptions, making any bargain politically sensitive.
Lieberman nevertheless signaled room for negotiation on Friday, telling supporters, “you cannot have it all”.
His remark suggests at least one of the opposition’s boundaries may be negotiable. It does not establish how far either side would move, or whether a compromise acceptable to religious parties would survive opposition from within Eisenkot’s camp.
Netanyahu Still Has Options
Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist bloc won 53 seats, leaving it eight short of a majority. His failure to secure the first mandate is a setback, but it has not resolved the struggle over his future.
A unity government involving Likud and parts of Eisenkot’s camp remains another possible outcome. For Netanyahu’s opponents, that would mean retreating from their central promise to replace him. Netanyahu, in turn, would face choices over his existing political partners.
The longer negotiations continue without an alternative majority, the greater the pressure on rival parties to explain whether their objections to one another outweigh their determination to end Netanyahu’s rule. That is the opening he retains.
Eisenkot’s immediate task is to turn a collection of parties seeking Netanyahu’s departure into an administration capable of agreeing on who belongs in government and what it should do.
Once formally tasked, Eisenkot will have 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension. If he fails, another candidate could receive an opportunity. If the subsequent process also produces no administration, Israel would return to an election.
