Netanyahu vs Eisenkot: Who will be Israel’s next PM? What’s happening?

The race to form a new government in Israel has entered its next phase after the country's Central Election Committee certified the October 27 general election results and submitted them to President Isaac Herzog after the commission found no evidence of fraud, as claimed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party in an effort to discredit the vote.

The general election results were submitted to the president on Wednesday, who has accepted them and is now poised to hold consultations for two days with leaders of the blocs before choosing the candidate who has the clearest path to form a government.

The development comes after the Netanyahu-led bloc won 53 seats; his rival Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition bloc got 48 seats, and Arab-led parties recorded 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset. The Change bloc, which together holds 48 seats, is due to recommend Eisenkot as the candidate to form the next government, while Netanyahu is expected to win four of the five parties that ran alongside him in the elections, which have 46 seats altogether.

There are three parties that have still not announced their decision: Arab-led Ra'am, the Joint List, and United Torah Judaism (UJT). The UJT holds the key to Netanyahu retaining the prime minister's office, as it has 7 Knesset members and is part of the pro-Netanyahu coalition.

But UJT is known to have avoided recommending candidates. However, the party is reportedly under pressure to recommend PM Netanyahu to form the next government. According to Tel Aviv's Channel 12 report, Netanyahu's team has been holding talks with the United Torah Judaism representatives in an attempt to receive support for a recommendation from the Haredi faction.

But the Likud party could be running short of time as the round of consultations between the various factions and the President has started. But if Netanyahu's team succeeds in getting the vote of confidence in the form of a recommendation from the UJT, it'll force the Eisenkot-led opposition bloc to seek support from Arab-led parties.

Since neither side has the required 61-seat majority to form the government, President Herzog said both sides needed to accept that “not every commitment and promise can be fulfilled” and to avoid new elections. After formally receiving the poll results from the election committee, Herzog said, "In the current reality, in which there is no clear winner after the elections, I ask for originality and creativity, courage and goodwill, so that the State of Israel emerges the winner." Nischai Vats is a Deputy Copy Editor at The Indian Express.

His work primarily covers US politics an... Read More