Israeli President Isaac Herzog yesterday formally tasked Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot with forming a government after he secured recommendations from 67 of the 120 elected members of the parliament, compared with 46 for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

 

Eisenkot, a former chief of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), has 28 days to form a government and secure the approval of the Knesset — Israel’s parliament. He may seek an additional 14-day extension from Herzog for government formation.

 

The October 27 elections, seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership, produced no clear majority but divided the political landscape into two competing blocs, with the anti-Netanyahu alliance recommending Eisenkot.

Netanyahu’s bloc won 53 seats in the October 27 polls. The anti-Netanyahu bloc, also described as the ‘Change Bloc’, won 48 seats, with the remaining 19 going to Arab parties in a fractured mandate.