Israel's president taps Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot to try to form a government
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President Isaac Herzog has handed Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot the mandate to try to build a coalition after an election stalemate left both him and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu short of a majority.
President Isaac Herzog informed Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of the Yashar party, that he would be tasked with forming a new government, with a formal appointment ceremony scheduled for Sunday at the presidential residence in Jerusalem. Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff, posted on X that a national emergency government was needed and pledged to work toward it, reflecting the political crisis created by the failure of the vote to produce a clear winner.
Netanyahu's religious-nationalist bloc won 53 of the 120 Knesset seats in the October 27 election, while Eisenkot's opposition bloc secured 48, leaving both without a governing majority. Eisenkot received endorsements from Arab-majority parties during consultations with Herzog, though it remains uncertain whether his bloc will accept their support amid the hardline arithmetic of Israeli politics.
Eiskot has said he aims to unite Israelis after Netanyahu's tenure and has criticized recent attacks on Palestinians, describing them as “Jewish terror” and blaming the current government. He opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, pledges to continue military pressure on Hamas in Gaza, and has previously articulated the “Dahiya doctrine,” a strategy of extensive force against infrastructure in areas controlled by Hezbollah.