Israeli President Isaac Herzog will announce on Sunday, November 8, whom he will task with trying to form a new government, according to France 24. The choice follows a recommendation process in which 67 parliament members backed opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot, while 46 recommended Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and seven lawmakers abstained.
Herzog said there were "mutual vetoes between the blocs and within the blocs themselves," which make it hard to say who can assemble a coalition, according to Al Jazeera. Eisenkot’s party, Yashar, said his 67 recommendations were the most any candidate had received since 2015, Al Jazeera reported.
United Torah Judaism, a longtime Netanyahu ally, declined to recommend any candidate. Al Jazeera reported that the move was reportedly over the failure to pass legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox men from military service.
The recommendations also brought sharp rhetoric. Ahmad Tibi of the Joint List said, "We want to do things that we did not do in the past in order to remove this criminal government," according to Al Jazeera. Netanyahu’s allies, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have called for the immediate arrest and interrogation of Arab party leaders, Al Jazeera reported.
The October 27 election did not give either man a clear path to a majority. Likud won 27 of the 120 seats, and Netanyahu’s wider coalition won 53. Eisenkot’s alliance won 48, and two Palestinian-minority parties won 19.
Netanyahu has cast doubt on the results by seizing on an election-official investigation into possible vote tampering, which he denies. Israel’s Central Election Committee said the integrity of the election was not compromised.
Once a candidate is nominated, he or she has 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension. Netanyahu remains caretaker prime minister until a coalition is formed or another election is held.
Herzog will hold personal talks with some party leaders over the weekend before announcing his pick on Sunday. If the nominee cannot form a government within the allotted time, the process continues under the rules above.
Several points remain unconfirmed. Herzog’s choice has not yet been announced, and the sources do not include a response from Netanyahu’s office or Likud to the recommendation results. Yariv Oppenheimer has said United Torah Judaism’s support is available for the right price, but no other source confirms this view, and the sources give no details of what terms Eisenkot would need to offer. The France 24 material was limited to a headline and short excerpt, and the SCMP excerpt omits seat and coalition details.
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This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.