Israeli President Isaac Herzog has chosen Gadi Eisenkot to have the first opportunity to form a new Israeli government, according to a statement released by his office on Saturday evening.
The statement said Eisenkot was informed of Herzog’s “intention to task him with forming a government” and would be invited to the president’s residence, where a formal ceremony will take place on Sunday.
What was the outcome from the Israeli election?
The decision comes after a neck-and-neck race with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s October election.
The Eisenkot-led bloc of Zionist parties, fashioned in opposition to Netanyahu, won 48 of the Israeli parliament’s 120 seats in October’s election, with Netanyahu’s camp securing 53.
Israel’s Arab parties secured a historic result with 19 parliament seats, with both camps initially promising not to rely on them to form a government ahead of the vote.
Former Israeli military chief Eisenkot is the leader of the centrist Yashar party and heads an anti-Netanyahu alliance.
While Netanyahu ruled out working with Arab parties to gain a majority, both Arab majority lists had announced during the week that they would recommend Eisenkot as the next prime minister.
Political reliance on Arab parties is considered contentious in Israeli politics. However, governments have previously relied on Arab votes to secure a majority.
The Israeli government led by Yitzhak Rabin relied on Arab parties’ votes from the opposition until Rabin’s assassination in 1995, while the Arab party Ra’am was part of the coalition led by Naftali Bennet and Yair Lapid between 2021 and 2022.
What happens next?
The move is the first step toward what will almost certainly be complicated coalition talks.
Should Eisenkot succeed in forming a government, he would take over as prime minister from Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving premier, whose religious-nationalist coalition lost its majority in the election despite emerging as the largest bloc.
Although Eisenkot was runner-up, he managed to secure endorsements from leaders of Arab parties, which are opposed to Netanyahu.
Eisenkot faces a tricky path to forming a government, involving difficult constellations of Arab and ultra-Orthodox parties. He will have 28 days to secure the 61 votes needed to form a government.
Herzog can give Eisenkot a 14-day extension if he comes up short, before the mandate must be offered to another candidate.
If no candidate succeeds, Israel will likely head to a fresh election.