Israel’s president on Saturday chose Gadi Eisenkot, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strongest rival, to try to form a new government following a deadlocked election that left neither man with a clear path to power.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, is fighting to stay in office after his religious-nationalist coalition lost its majority in an Oct 27 election but still emerged as the largest bloc in parliament.
Eisenkot, a former military chief, has declined to join forces with Arab parties, with whose support he would have a majority of seats in parliament.
But Arab leaders, incensed by what they view as the racist policies of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, still nominated Eisenkot to try to form a government first giving him the most endorsements.
“President Herzog has invited Gadi Eisenkot to the President’s Residence, where he will be tasked with forming the government tomorrow,” said the spokesperson of President Isaac Herzog, whose largely ceremonial role involves nominating a candidate to form a coalition after elections.
As part of this process, the president met Eisenkot and Netanyahu, among others, a statement by Herzog’s office said.
At the end of the consultations, factions comprising 67 Knesset members recommended to the president that Yashar party’s Eisenkot be tasked with forming the government, while factions comprising 46 Knesset members recommended Likud’s Netanyahu, the statement noted.
Meanwhile, seven Knesset members chose not to recommend anyone.
“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.
Eisenkot faces long-shot bid to form govt
Weeks of protracted negotiations are expected to follow Eisenkot’s nomination. He has 28 days to try to forge a government, with a possible 14-day extension.
His potential pathways to power include trying to form a minority government with Arab support from the outside; forming a coalition with ultra-Orthodox parties that he and his allies have shunned in the past; or forging a unity government with Netanyahu.
Analysts say that all three options are unlikely to take shape.
If Eisenkot fails, another candidate can try to form a government and if that candidate fails, parliament can nominate another. There is a deadline for the process of around 100 days. If no one succeeds, another election is held.
Likud won the most seats of any single party with 27 in the 120-seat Knesset, but Netanyahu’s wider religious-nationalist coalition garnered only 53 in total, short of a 61-seat majority.
Eisenkot’s Yashar party emerged as the second-largest party with 21 seats, while his coalition, spanning four centre-left to right-wing Jewish-led parties, won just 48 seats. Two parties representing Israel’s Arab minority won an unprecedented 19 seats.
The result underscored the rightward shift among Israeli Jews during Netanyahu’s years as the country’s dominant political figure. The centre-left that dominated Israel for the first half of its history has been reduced to a small fringe.
Nearly all Jewish parties now share Netanyahu’s rejection of an eventual independent Palestinian state, the basis of internationally endorsed peace efforts since the 1990s.
Eisenkot and Netanyahu have both said they would not form a government with parties primarily representing Israeli citizens of Palestinian descent, who comprise around a fifth of the population.
A son of Moroccan immigrants, Eisenkot, 66, would be the country’s first prime minister from Israel’s Mizrahi community, Jews who trace their roots to the Middle East and North Africa.
Eisenkot only entered politics in 2022. He briefly served in Netanyahu’s wartime cabinet following Hamas’s Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel before returning to the opposition. Eisenkot’s son and two nephews were killed fighting in Gaza.
How different are Eisenkot’s views from Netanyahu?
Eisenkot offers a break with Netanyahu’s leadership and far-right allies, but not with the hawkish security views that have hardened since Oct 7, 2023: he opposes Palestinian statehood and says Hamas’s military wing must be destroyed or dismantled.
Beyond that, Eisenkot has said Israel’s next government must prevent Iran from acquiring a military nuclear capability, either by force or through an “arrangement” such as a US-backed diplomatic solution.
He has emphasised his security credentials on the campaign trail, citing his “Dahiya doctrine” of responding to attacks with disproportionate force, which he deployed as a commander during Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Eisenkot shares many of Netanyahu’s views on security and has backed the Gaza offensive that has reduced the territory to rubble.
Israel’s relentless campaign in response to the Hamas attacks killed over 74,000 Palestinians and has left it increasingly isolated on the world stage, with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and experts declaring its actions in Gaza as a “genocide”, which Tel Aviv rejects.
Both Eisenkot and Netanyahu say Israeli troops will not withdraw from Gaza until Hamas is disarmed, and that Israel is prepared to restart fighting to achieve this.
Eisenkot says the continued rule of Hamas in Gaza is a profound failure, and that within 18 months of taking office he would ensure that the Hamas administration had been replaced, either through a US-brokered plan or through military force.
From the opposition, Eisenkot publicly rebuked Netanyahu over his leadership, including his management of the military campaign in Gaza, and has sworn that he would not serve in government with him.
Although Eisenkot has criticised settler violence against Palestinians in occupied West Bank, which has surged since 2023, he favours settlement in principle and says it should comply with Israeli law.
He opposes settlements built without authorisation, aims to dismantle outposts in areas where they are forbidden and has pledged to rein in violent settlers.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis live in the West Bank, settling in territory Israel occupied in a 1967 war, a practice nearly all countries consider illegal under international law.
Netanyahu and Eisenkot both say Israel must retain ultimate security control over all territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
There are, however, differences in their emphasis. Eisenkot’s position on limiting settlements in the West Bank would reserve territory where Palestinians now exercise civil self-rule. Netanyahu’s coalition includes parties that openly call for Israel to fully annex occupied Palestinian land.
Source: www.dawn.com
