Israeli Politicsupdated 28m ago2 min read
Herzog Says Deadlock Persists as Eisenkot Secures 67 Knesset Endorsements
“The proposed arrangement would initially rely on four Zionist parties”
“Any reasonable person need only look at the security and diplomatic challenges before us”
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Eisenkot secures 67 endorsements, giving him a parliamentary majority to form government. Herzog remains undecided on who should form the next government.
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Eisenkot edges, Herzog decides
President Isaac Herzog said it was still unclear who could break the deadlock between Gadi Eisenkot and Benjamin Netanyahu, and he would decide on Sunday which of the two men should try first. Herzog said that while the “results of the consultations may appear clear”, “mutual vetoes between the blocs and within the blocs themselves” made it difficult to say who had the best shot to form a government. Herzog’s consultations left Eisenkot with endorsements from 67 of the Knesset’s 120 elected lawmakers, while Netanyahu had endorsements from 46, and Netanyahu remained prime minister in a caretaker government until a new coalition was formed or there was another election.
Netanyahu’s nationalist-religious coalition, described as the most rightwing government in Israel’s history, lost its governing majority as it dropped from 68 to 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. The Guardian also said parties representing Israeli Palestinians held a record 19 seats, with the Joint List at 11 and Ra’am at eight, making Arab-majority parties potential kingmakers in the formation process.
Arab parties and Hamas conditions
The Joint List announced it would recommend Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot to President Isaac Herzog, saying the decision came “in response to the public demand to prevent Netanyahu and his government from returning to power.” The Joint List said backing Eisenkot was important despite the opposition bloc’s failure so far to show sufficient willingness to “confront Netanyahu’s path, as well as to fight incitement against Arab citizens and attempts to undermine the legitimacy of their political decision.”
Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas told Herzog that Ra’am supported the full disarmament of Hamas as one of Eisenkot’s four principles, and Abbas said, “Let’s not turn us into supporters of terrorism or traitors.” Ynetnews said Eisenkot’s plan relied on outside support from Arab and ultra-Orthodox factions, and Eisenkot warned that “Anyone who tries to undermine or sabotage the formation of a government for personal rather than substantive reasons will be remembered by history as someone who failed to rise to the occasion.”
Caretaker power, election integrity
Netanyahu remained prime minister in a caretaker government until a new coalition was formed or there was another election, which must be held if no candidate succeeded. Netanyahu, at risk of losing power, seized on an investigation by election officials into possible vote tampering to cast doubt on the results, accusing Israeli Palestinian-led parties of stealing the vote.
Israel’s Central Election Committee said on Wednesday that the election’s integrity had not been compromised, and it quoted Noam Sohlberg warning, “This is a real danger. Eisenkot argued that a caretaker prime minister in a minority government who had “lost the people's trust to such an extreme degree” was dangerous and “must not continue for even one more day,” framing the replacement as “so urgent” that it should happen “for even one more day.”