President Herzog to appoint government-forming candidate by Sunday after Knesset vote

President Isaac Herzog announced on Thursday that he will select a candidate to form Israel's next government by Sunday, after a majority of Knesset members endorsed opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Herzog said the consultations showed clear support for Eisenkot, with 67 lawmakers backing him, while 46 supported Netanyahu, but noted that internal vetoes within party blocs complicate the coalition-building process.

In televised remarks, Herzog said he would hold personal talks with party leaders over the Israeli weekend (Friday-Saturday) before making his decision. The October 27 election left no party with a clear majority; Netanyahu's Likud secured 27 seats, and his broader religious-nationalist bloc totaled 53, while Eisenkot's alliance of four Jewish-led parties won 48 seats. Two Arab-representing parties gained a record 19 seats.

Both Eisenkot and Netanyahu have ruled out forming a government with the Arab-led parties, yet the Arab parties recommended Eisenkot, giving him a comfortable majority of endorsements. "We want to do things that we did not do in the past in order to remove this criminal government," senior Joint List member Ahmad Tibi told the Associated Press.

Eisenkot's party, Yashar, highlighted that his 67 recommendations were the highest for any candidate since 2015 and urged Herzog to grant him the mandate promptly to establish a national emergency government. United Torah Judaism, a longtime Netanyahu ally, declined to recommend any candidate, citing the coalition's failure to pass legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox men from military service.

Yariv Oppenheimer of the Democrats, part of Eisenkot's alliance, told Al Jazeera that he saw no reason Herzog would not choose Eisenkot on Sunday and added that United Torah Judaism might support Eisenkot if offered a suitable agreement. "It’s very clear that Netanyahu doesn’t have a chance to establish a government at all," he said.

Once appointed, the candidate will have 28 days to form a coalition, with a possible 14-day extension. Netanyahu will remain caretaker prime minister until a new coalition is established or a new election is called if the mandate fails. Netanyahu has questioned the election's integrity, alleging vote tampering by Arab parties, claims rejected by Israel's Central Election Committee. Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg warned that undermining the peaceful transfer of power threatens democratic foundations.