Protesters hold a banner that reads in Hebrewo, "The people chose change", during a demonstration on Habima Square in Tel Aviv, on November 7, 2026, calling for the formation of a Jewish-Arab coalition government following Israel's general election. (AFP Photo)
Israel’s president has announced he will task Gadi Eisenkot with forming the next government following Oct. 27’s election, in what Netanyahu’s rivals see as a first step to remove the country’s longest-serving prime minister.
The opposition bloc led by Eisenkot, a former military chief and political newcomer who has tried to appeal to secular and liberal Israelis, has opened the door to a once improbable alliance with ultra-Orthodox Jews, which could give it the numbers to form a coalition.
President Isaac Herzog said that after consultations with all parties last week, he would grant Eisenkot the first chance to form a government after neither side secured a majority in a country deeply polarized by Netanyahu’s hard-right rule and worn down by three years of war.
Eisenkot, who on Nov. 7 pledged to “do everything” to form a new government, was recommended by parties representing 67 lawmakers as opposed to 46 for Netanyahu’s bloc.
But the recommendations for Eisenkot included members of Israel’s Arab minority, whose seat haul soared in the election on the back of anger against Netanyahu, and right-leaning segments of the opposition that are against relying on Arab votes.
Herzog, originally from Israel’s now defunct left-wing Labour Party but who has a non-partisan role and has forged a working relationship with Netanyahu, has signaled that he would like to explore a national unity government that would seek to bring together Jewish Israelis from across the political spectrum.
Pressure for a unity government could build if Netanyahu follows through on threats to resume war on Iran, although U.S. President Donald Trump has not given the green light.
Netanyahu, who has led Israel on and off for nearly two decades and guided its sharply rightward turn in recent years, faces corruption charges and potentially jail if he leaves office. He also faces an arrest warrant over the Gaza war from the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose authority he rejects.
Netanyahu has already called for a unity government, but the opposition has stood firm on removing him first.
He has attacked opposition leaders for even considering working with Israeli Arabs, descendants of Palestinians who stayed after the creation of Israel in 1948.
The incumbent premier said on Nov. 7 that a potential coalition between opposition parties and Arab lists, which he called Islamists, would “dismantle the State of Israel from within” and urged the formation of a unity government comprising “all the Zionist parties that want to safeguard our state.”
In response, Eisenkot’s Yashar party urged Netanyahu’s allies and members of his Likud party to form a unity government led by Eisenkot and to “publicly announce the dissolution of their alliance with the extremists.”
“Now is the time to form a national emergency government,” Eisenkot wrote on X in his first reaction to the announcement of his designation. “I will do everything to ensure we are worthy.”
Opposition bloc member Avigdor Liberman has made clear that he will not sit with Eisenkot if he relies on Israeli-Arab votes.
