Herzog says he'll name Israel's next government-builder on Sunday, as Eisenkot outpaces Netanyahu in recommendations

Israel's President Isaac Herzog said Thursday he intends to task a member of the Knesset with trying to form the country's next government this coming Sunday, after two days of consultations left former armed forces chief Gadi Eisenkot with a wider endorsement than caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but no clear majority for either man.

The announcement followed the October 27 election for the 26th Knesset, which produced a deadlock. Herzog met representatives of all parties elected to parliament this week before telling reporters at his residence that factions controlling 67 seats had recommended Eisenkot, leader of the new Yashar party, while factions holding 46 seats backed Netanyahu. "The results of the consultations may appear clear," Herzog said, "but the authority vested in me by law is to determine who has the ability to form a government, and that is not entirely clear, given the mutual vetoes between the blocs."

Factions and seat counts

Herzog's office published the recommendations faction by faction as they were submitted. The United Arab List, known as Ra'am, told the president it backed Eisenkot, joining the Joint List, the Democrats and Naftali Bennett's B'Yachad in an opposition alliance that controls 48 seats on its own. Centrist Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beiteinu added a further 7. On the other side, Otzma Yehudit, Shas, Religious Zionism and the small Zehut faction all recommended Netanyahu, whose Likud took 27 seats, the most of any single party, in a religious-nationalist bloc of 53. One traditional Netanyahu ally, United Torah Judaism, recommended no one after a dispute over legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox men from military conscription, leaving its 7 seats in play.

Both leaders have publicly ruled out governing with the Arab-led parties, even though Ra'am and the Joint List recommended Eisenkot anyway, a step that lets them influence the process without joining a coalition. Netanyahu has separately questioned the vote's integrity after Israel's Central Elections Committee opened an inquiry into alleged irregularities; the committee has said the result was not compromised, a position the president's office reiterated when it confirmed receipt of the official tally on November 4.

What happens next

Herzog is required under Basic Law: The Government to assign the first mandate within days of certification, and he has said he will do so on Sunday. Whoever he names, most likely Eisenkot given the recommendation count, gets 28 days to assemble a coalition commanding at least 61 of the Knesset's 120 seats, with a possible 14-day extension built into the law. Netanyahu remains prime minister in a caretaker capacity throughout. If the first nominee fails, the president can hand a second mandate to another lawmaker, typically from the rival bloc; if that also collapses, 61 or more members of the Knesset can petition to install a candidate of their own, and if every route fails the chamber dissolves and Israelis return to the polls for a second time in roughly a year.

The arithmetic leaves Eisenkot dependent on parties he has pledged not to formally include in government, and on whether Liberman's and United Torah Judaism's undecided lawmakers shift the count further. Washington has floated the idea of a unity arrangement bringing Netanyahu and Eisenkot together, an outcome Eisenkot has so far rejected. For now, attention turns to Herzog's private weekend meetings with party leaders and to Sunday's announcement, which will determine whether Israel gets a working government or heads toward the kind of prolonged coalition haggling, or repeat election, that marked earlier deadlocked Knessets.