Eisenkot Gets Mandate as Arab Parties Are Shut Out

President Isaac Herzog tasked former army chief Gadi Eisenkot with forming Israel’s next government, after neither side secured a majority in the Oct. 27 general election. Eisenkot has the mandate to assemble a coalition; the parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel have 19 seats, but he has ruled out governing with them.

The arithmetic of power

Herzog communicated his decision to Eisenkot on Saturday evening, Nov. 7, and will formally hand him the mandate at a ceremony on Sunday, a statement from the president's spokesperson said. The decision followed consultations with all political parties this week. Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, was recommended by parties representing 67 lawmakers, compared with 46 for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc.

Those recommendations don't themselves form a government. Eisenkot has 28 days, with a possible 14-day extension, to build a coalition holding at least 61 of the Knesset's 120 seats. That threshold is the minimum needed to form a government.

His four-party alliance won 48 seats. Netanyahu's right-wing and religious bloc secured 53. Arab-led parties won a record 19 seats, yet Eisenkot has ruled out forming a government with them. Their support would give him a 67-seat bloc. The arithmetic is plain; so is the boundary placed around who may take part in governing.

The coalition menu

Eisenkot could reach exactly 61 seats by winning over the two ultra-Orthodox parties, United Torah Judaism and Shas. The next government will be assembled through negotiations among parties seeking enough seats to cross the Knesset threshold, while a bloc with the capacity to provide support has already been excluded by the prospective prime minister.

Netanyahu's response came hours before Herzog's decision. He warned that a government formed by opposition parties with the support of Arab-led parties would lead to Israel's collapse. That warning was a political statement, not an election result: the election produced seat totals, and Herzog's consultations produced recommendations. The institutional contest now turns on which parties Eisenkot can bring into a coalition before his mandate expires.

Military credentials, political office

Eisenkot led Israel's military from 2015 to 2019. He also sat as an observer in Netanyahu's war cabinet for the first eight months of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza. Those details sit alongside his new task of assembling a government: a former army chief, involved as an observer in a wartime cabinet, now seeks the parliamentary support required to lead the country's executive.

The figures in this contest describe more than a race between two leaders. They show who has been recommended, who can supply the seats needed for a majority, and whose support Eisenkot has excluded. Netanyahu invoked national collapse to attack one possible coalition; Eisenkot's own choice rules out the Arab-led parties whose backing would provide a larger bloc. For now, the mandate belongs to Eisenkot, and the 61-seat threshold sets the terms of the bargaining.