Jerusalem: Israel's president has handed Gadi Eisenkot the first chance to form a government. Isaac Herzog announced on Saturday that he will task the former military chief, Benjamin Netanyahu's strongest rival, at a ceremony on Sunday.
Eisenkot will then have 28 days to build a coalition, with a possible 14-day extension.
The October 27 election left neither camp with the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-member Knesset. In consultations, factions holding 67 seats recommended Eisenkot and those holding 46 recommended Netanyahu, according to the president's office. One faction of seven declined to recommend anyone.
Eisenkot's Yashar party won 21 seats and his opposition bloc 48. The two Arab parties, with 19 seats, nominated him despite his refusal to sit with them in a coalition.
"Now is the time to form a national emergency government. I will do everything to ensure we prove ourselves worthy," Eisenkot wrote on X.
His routes to power are narrow. He could lead a minority government with Arab support from outside, build a coalition with ultra-Orthodox parties his bloc has shunned, or strike a unity deal with Netanyahu. Analysts put low odds on all three. United Torah Judaism, an ultra-Orthodox ally of Netanyahu, declined to endorse the prime minister and has signalled it could join an Eisenkot-led coalition.
If Eisenkot fails, another candidate gets 28 days without an extension. If that fails too, 61 MKs can jointly ask the president to assign the task to a lawmaker, who then has 14 days. Failing all of it, the Knesset dissolves and Israel votes again. The whole sequence is bounded at roughly 100 days.