Israeli President Isaac Herzog has tasked former army chief and Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot with forming the country's next government, passing over his rival Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following weeks of consultations.
Herzog communicated his decision to Eisenkot on Saturday evening and will formally hand him the mandate at an official ceremony at the President's Residence on Sunday at 5:00 pm local time.
Reacting to the decision, Eisenkot stated that it is time to build a "national emergency government", pledging to do everything in his power to succeed.
Coalition hurdles
Once he receives the mandate, Eisenkot will have 28 days to build a coalition that commands at least 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset, with Herzog holding the authority under Israel's Basic Law to grant an extension of up to 14 days.
The decision follows extensive consultations held by Herzog with other parliamentary factions this week after the October 27 general election produced an inconclusive result.
Eisenkot secured recommendations from factions representing 67 lawmakers, compared with 46 for Netanyahu's right-wing and religious alliance, the president's office confirmed.
In the October ballot, Eisenkot's four-party alliance won 48 seats, whilst Netanyahu's bloc took 53, leaving both sides short of a working majority.
Arab-led parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel won a record 19 seats.
Netanyahu claimed that an administration formed by opposition factions with the support of Arab-led parties would lead to Israel's collapse.
Eisenkot has ruled out forming a coalition directly dependent on Arab-led parties, which would give him a 67-seat bloc. Instead, winning over the two ultra-Orthodox parties—United Torah Judaism and Shas—would give him exactly 61 seats.
Eisenkot led the Israeli military from 2015 to 2019 and previously sat as an observer in Netanyahu's war cabinet for the first eight months of the genocide in Gaza.
