Israeli President Isaac Herzog has officially given the mandate to form a new government to Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar Party after the October 27 election, which is widely being seen as a referendum on current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has officially given the mandate to form a new government to Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar Party after the October 27 election, which is widely being seen as a referendum on current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership.
Eisenkot secured the mandate by earning recommendations from 67 of the 120 Knesset, the unicameral legislature of Israel, beating Prime Minister Netanyahu's 46. Netanyahu's religious-nationalist camp won 53 seats, with his Likud party taking 27. Eisenkot's diverse center-left to right-wing "Change Bloc" secured just 48 seats. The election left neither major candidate with a majority. Eisenkot now has a strict 28 day window with a possible 14 day extension from the President to negotiate a 61 seat majority. Declaring that Israel is approaching a "point of no return", Eisenkot stressed the need for "creative and unconventional political steps" to form a national emergency government.
Both Herzog and Eisenkot have warned of a "devastating diplomatic crisis", noting that even Israel's closest allies are reassessing their relationships. This urgency is driven by the recent US midterm elections where Democrats swept into power and are expected to renew calls from the US to curb Israel over the devastation in Gaza and the unpopular war with Iran.
If Eisenkot successfully forms a government, the 66 year old would become the Israel's first Prime Minister from the Mizrahi community. The son of Moroccan immigrants, Eisenkot is known to be reserved and media shy and only entered politics in 2022.
Eisenkot's opposition to Netanyahu is both political and personal, due to the loss of his son and two nephews in Gaza. He has fiercely condemned the surge of violence by extremist West Bank settlers, calling it "Jewish terror" abetted by Netanyahu's far right coalition partners. In response, Netanyahu has claimed that the election was "stolen" by Arab parties, despite the Shin Bet (Israel's internal security and counterintelligence service) and the Central Elections Committee validating the results.
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