Eisenkot leads race for Israeli mandate as Herzog weighs choice

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has said he will announce on Sunday whom he will task with forming a new government, after opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot secured 67 recommendations from parliament members to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, against 46 for Netanyahu and seven abstentions, Africanews reported.

The numbers favour Eisenkot, a former military chief whose Yashar party campaigned on restoring national unity, but they do not settle the matter. Herzog held a second day of consultations on Thursday after the October 27 election left neither candidate with a majority in the 120-member Knesset, the South China Morning Post reported.

The two Arab-majority lists, which won an unprecedented 19 seats, both said on Thursday they were backing Eisenkot. But whether Eisenkot would rely on them remains unclear: Israel Beiteinu, a right-wing party in his own camp, has repeatedly said it will not sit in a government dependent on Arab parties. Its leader Avigdor Liberman pointed to the Arab parties' refusal to explicitly define Hamas as a "terror group", although they have repeatedly condemned the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

By bloc, the arithmetic is equally tight. Netanyahu's camp holds 53 seats and Eisenkot's 48, leaving the Arab lists as potential kingmakers. Netanyahu, who has led Israel through three years of war, has attacked the opposition over the prospect of an alliance with Arab lawmakers and alleged "serious suspicions" of foreign money in the election, while questioning the loyalty of Arab citizens.

Herzog signalled he was not bound by the recommendation count, citing "mutual vetoes between the blocs and within the blocs themselves". United Torah Judaism, which backed Netanyahu after the previous five elections, declined to recommend anyone this time, a move observers read as a warning to Netanyahu rather than a switch of allegiance. The party, which won seven seats, wants the military service exemption for religious students preserved; Eisenkot is adamant about ending it.

Once Herzog names his choice on Sunday, that lawmaker has 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension. Failure would hand the mandate to someone else.