Herzog tells Eisenkot he will task him with forming Israel's government

President Isaac Herzog told Gadi Eisenkot on Saturday evening, 7 November, that he would task him with forming Israel's next government. Herzog is due to hand over the mandate at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on Sunday at 5 p.m. local time, in a ceremony to be broadcast live. The choice is made. The handover is scheduled and had not been confirmed as completed.

Herzog told Eisenkot, who leads the centrist Yashar party, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of his decision, then announced it on X. His office's tally from the consultations showed 67 Knesset members recommending Eisenkot, 46 recommending Netanyahu and 7 recommending no one. The seven belong to United Torah Judaism (UTJ), an ultra-Orthodox party that sat in Netanyahu's coalition. As the Times of Israel reported when the Joint List recommended Eisenkot to Herzog while saying it would support a government from outside(https://crisis.zone/joint-list-recommends-eisenkot-to-herzog-but-says-it-will-stay-outside-his-government), that 67 includes parties that will not join his cabinet. Eisenkot wrote on X, in the BBC's rendering: "Now is the time to form a national emergency government. I will do everything to ensure we are worthy."

What a mandate gives him

A mandate is the right to try, not a government. No coalition agreement exists and no change of government has occurred. Netanyahu remains caretaker prime minister, and Likud, with 27 seats, is still the largest single party.

Eisenkot has 28 days to build a coalition. Herzog can extend that by up to 14 days. Politico and the New York Times describe this as up to six weeks. An Al Jazeera explainer sets out what follows a failure. Herzog picks another nominee, who gets 28 days. If that nominee fails, a parliamentary majority can back a third candidate, who gets a final 14 days. After that the Knesset is dissolved and a new election is called within 90 days.

The seats explain the difficulty. In the 27 October election Netanyahu's bloc won 53 of 120 seats, eight short of 61. Eisenkot's four-party bloc won 48 (Yashar 21, Together 12, Democrats 8, Yisrael Beytenu 7). Arab-led parties won a record 19. The numbers were certified on 4 November as consultations opened. The opposition leaders had settled on Eisenkot at their 3 November meeting in Herzliya.

Netanyahu replied in a recorded video on Saturday, before Herzog's decision was announced. In the Jerusalem Post's translation, he said: "As early as this coming week, there are those who intend to hastily swear in a government with terror supporters." That label is his own. He called for a national unity government that includes "all parties of the national camp and all Zionist parties." Yashar called the video "hysterical."

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What to watch

Herzog set out the problem himself when consultations ended on Thursday. He said the ability to form a government is "not entirely clear in light of the mutual vetoes between the blocs and within the blocs themselves."

Five markers will show whether anything moves. They are UTJ's rabbinic decision, Shas's stance, Liberman's red lines, the new Knesset's swearing-in on 10 November and whether Netanyahu's unity pitch gains traction. The 28-day clock favours neither side. Nehru Jamhour, an analyst of Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that a drawn-out impasse is the likeliest outcome and Netanyahu's preferred one. He argued that Netanyahu hopes a repeat election could weaken his rivals and depress Arab turnout. That is one analyst's assessment, not an established outcome.

The first test of Eisenkot's 28 days will be whether any party moves off its stated limits.