President Isaac Herzog announced on Saturday night he will task Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot with forming Israel’s next government, following consultations with political parties elected to the 26th Knesset.
Factions totaling 67 Knesset members recommended Eisenkot, including his Yashar party (21), Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad (12), Yousef Jabareen’s Joint List (11), Yair Golan’s The Democrats (8), Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am (8) and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu (7).
Factions totaling 46 lawmakers recommended Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including Likud (27), National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit (7), Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist-Zehut (6) and Aryeh Deri’s Shas (6).
Netanyahu’s bloc emerged from the election with 53 seats, compared with 48 for the Eisenkot-led opposition, while Arab parties secured a record-high 19 seats, spilt between the Joint List and Ra’am.
Under Basic Law: The Government, Eisenkot will have 28 days to form a coalition, with Herzog able to grant an extension of up to 14 additional days.
Martin Sherman, founder and executive director of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies, told JNS that Eisenkot would be unable to form a government while honoring his campaign pledges.
“Even if you look at [Ra’am leader] Mansour Abbas, the party platform still rejects Israel as a Jewish state and refuses to use its symbols or acknowledge its heritage,” Sherman said.
Further complicating matters, Sherman said, is Liberman’s staunch opposition to joining a minority government reliant on the support of Arab parties.
Sherman argued that such a government would be short-lived, given that Arab parties would be unable to support many government decisions, particularly on security matters. However, he said, it could remain in power long enough to pass legislation targeting Netanyahu and install an opposition-aligned Knesset speaker.
Sherman said Eisenkot would also face significant difficulties bringing ultra-Orthodox parties into his coalition because of their central demand for exemptions from military conscription.
Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman signaled on Friday that he was prepared to compromise on legislation governing haredi military conscription, creating a mathematical path to a government without Netanyahu or the Arab parties.
Yashar’s 21 seats, B’Yachad’s 12, The Democrats’ eight and Yisrael Beiteinu’s seven, together with UTJ’s seven and Shas’s six, would produce exactly 61 seats—the minimum required for a Knesset majority.
United Torah Judaism chairman Yaakov Asher welcomed Liberman’s change of position but stressed that no agreement had been reached.
UTJ did not endorse a candidate for prime minister during Herzog’s consultations and has not expressed support for the proposed six-party coalition.
Shas, meanwhile, recommended Netanyahu to Herzog and has so far remained publicly committed to him.
Compromise on demands?
With a unity government between Netanyahu and Eisenkot appearing highly unlikely, former Knesset member Dov Lipman told JNS that the ultra-Orthodox parties might settle for only some of their demands being met in order to avoid sitting in the opposition.
Nevertheless, Eisenkot reaffirmed his commitment on Friday to mandatory military service for all, potentially complicating negotiations.
“Mandatory service for all—military, national and civilian—to strengthen the IDF and expand its ranks,” Eisenkot wrote on X.
Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told JNS that Iran makes no distinction between Netanyahu, Eisenkot or even Yair Golan in its determination to destroy Israel. He said a unity government would therefore serve Israel’s interests as it confronts the formidable challenges ahead.
“President Trump very clearly wants to work with Netanyahu. He has said it twice. That puts Eisenkot at a personal disadvantage,” Diker said.
“If Eisenkot cobbles together a minority government backed by Arab parties, Trump would not favor such an arrangement in Israel. I believe it would create political and media obstacles and put pressure on Israel,” he added.
Diker said that, in such a scenario, Israel would have a government reliant on Arab-party support that would oppose Israeli military action against the Islamic Republic.
With Trump facing significant pressure following his party’s major midterm election losses, which some Republicans have partly blamed on the war against Iran, Diker said the president could not afford to return to square one and work with an Israeli leader he did not know if he were to launch another military operation.
“Netanyahu has mastered the approach to Trump. From Trump’s point of view, he could act alone. Eisenkot has not been in the room for most of the past two years, when we have undertaken secret and highly complex operations against the regime and its proxies. He has a very steep learning curve,” he added.
