Gadi Eisenkot has emerged from Israel's post-election presidential consultations with the backing of 67 lawmakers — a majority of the 120-seat Knesset — after the Arab-led Joint List recommended him on Thursday, November 5, President Isaac Herzog confirmed on Thursday evening after concluding two days of consultations with all factions elected in the October 27 election. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured recommendations from 46 lawmakers, while the seven members of United Torah Judaism (UTJ) declined to support either candidate.
Source: The Media Line, Nov 5, via SRN News
This is the final tally of a day that began with UTJ — Netanyahu's longstanding ultra-Orthodox ally — withholding its endorsement and leaving Eisenkot on 56 recommendations. Read the earlier development: UTJ withholds Netanyahu endorsement
How the 67 was built
Eisenkot's tally is 48 lawmakers from four Jewish-led parties — his own Yashar, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid's B'Yachad, the Democrats, and Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beitenu — plus the eight members of the Arab-led Ra'am party and the Joint List's 11 lawmakers, whose unanimous decision on Thursday took him past the 61-seat majority line. The Joint List said its decision reflected public demands to prevent Netanyahu's return to power, but stressed that recommending Eisenkot does not constitute an agreement to join an Eisenkot-led coalition, and that it has deep policy disagreements with parts of the Jewish opposition's platform.
Source: The Media Line, Nov 5, via SRN News; ANI, Nov 5, via Daily Prabhat
Netanyahu was recommended by Likud, Shas, Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit and Zehut. His electoral bloc won 53 seats on October 27, but UTJ's seven lawmakers withheld their recommendation — breaking with the party's longstanding practice of backing the Likud leader — following a dispute over legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students from military service. UTJ representatives told Herzog their backing for any future administration remains contingent on securing those exemptions.
Source: Matzav, Nov 5, reporting the consultation tally; The Media Line via SRN News
Recommendations are not a coalition
Herzog himself underlined the gap between the tally and a working government. "The results of the consultations may appear clear, 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 and within the blocs themselves," he said. Under Israeli law the president is not obliged to choose the candidate with the most recommendations — he must pick the lawmaker he believes has the strongest prospect of assembling a governing coalition. Eisenkot's four Jewish-led supporting parties hold just 48 seats, below the 61 needed, and potential coalition partners have opposed governing with the Arab parties, whose support may come from outside a coalition rather than inside it.
Source: The Media Line, Nov 5, via SRN News
What is solid
- Herzog confirmed the final consultation tally on Thursday evening: Eisenkot 67 recommendations, Netanyahu 46, UTJ's 7 members recommending neither (The Media Line; Matzav; ANI)
- The Joint List's 11 lawmakers unanimously recommended Eisenkot on Thursday, joining Ra'am's 8 and 48 from four Jewish-led parties (Yashar, B'Yachad, the Democrats, Yisrael Beitenu)
- UTJ withheld its recommendation from Netanyahu, its traditional ally, over the yeshiva-student draft-exemption dispute
- Herzog said he intends to assign the mandate on Sunday, November 8; his legal deadline is November 11, and the mandate holder gets 28 days plus a possible 14-day extension
What is only claimed
- Whether 67 recommendations become a government: the Joint List says its endorsement is not a coalition agreement, Eisenkot's core Jewish-led bloc holds only 48 of the 61 seats needed, and Herzog said the ability to form a government is 'not entirely clear' given mutual vetoes between and within the blocs
What happens next
Herzog is expected to assign the mandate on Sunday, November 8, ahead of the new Knesset being sworn in on November 10. Whoever receives it will have 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension. The open question is arithmetic: whether Eisenkot can turn recommendations from parties that disagree with each other — and in the Joint List's case, will not join his coalition — into 61 votes for an actual cabinet, or whether the mandate passes to Netanyahu or back to the Knesset.