Israel's president asks Gadi Eisenkot, not Netanyahu, to form a government

Last Sunday Hindsight reported that Israel's election on 27th October had left no one with a majority: Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc won 53 seats, Gadi Eisenkot's four-party alliance 48 and Arab-led parties a record 19, with 61 needed to govern.¹

On Saturday evening President Isaac Herzog said he would give Eisenkot, a former chief of the army and the leader of the Yashar party, the first chance to form a government. After consulting every party, Herzog found that members with 67 of the Knesset's 120 seats had recommended Eisenkot and 46 Netanyahu; United Torah Judaism, with seven seats, recommended no one. The mandate is to be handed over on Sunday afternoon.²

Israel has both a president and a prime minister, with different jobs. The prime minister leads the government, which Israel's Basic Law calls "the executive branch of the State", and which holds office only while it has the confidence of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.³ The president, Herzog, is head of state. He is not chosen by voters: the Knesset elects the president in a secret ballot, for a single seven-year term.⁴

The presidency is largely ceremonial. The president signs every law, with no power to veto it, accredits ambassadors and signs treaties the Knesset has approved, and almost everything he signs must also be signed by the prime minister or a minister. He holds two powers of his own: to pardon offenders or reduce their sentences, and, after an election, to choose which member of the Knesset gets the first chance to form a government. Documents about forming a government are among the few he signs without a minister.⁴³

Eisenkot now has 28 days, which the president can extend by up to 14. If he fails, Herzog can give the task to another member of the Knesset, who also gets 28 days. After that, a majority of the Knesset can ask him to choose a particular member, who gets 14 days. If all of that fails, a new election is held about 90 days later.³

That leaves Netanyahu in office for now. Until a new government wins a vote of confidence, he stays prime minister, because the law says the outgoing government carries on until the new one is formed.³ He is no longer the one trying to build the next coalition, but he could still get the chance if Eisenkot fails and the president, or a majority of the Knesset, turns to him.³²

The 67 recommendations are not a coalition. They include the Arab-led parties, and Eisenkot has ruled out governing with them; Ahmad Tibi of the Joint List said he expects a minority government "with external support from the Arab parties".¹ Without them, Eisenkot's bloc of 48 would need both ultra-Orthodox parties, United Torah Judaism and Shas, to support or at least not oppose him to reach 61, and Eisenkot insists that any partner accept military service for the ultra-Orthodox, whose exemption he campaigned to end.²

Eisenkot wrote that "now is the time for the formation of a national emergency government". Netanyahu, in a video, called instead for "a government of national unity which will include all the parties of the national camp", and warned against relying on Arab parties: "With a government like that, Israel simply won't survive."²