Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Thursday that he will announce next Sunday the name of the representative nominated to form the next government, after former Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot came ahead of outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in parliamentary recommendations with the support of the two Arab lists.
Herzog said in a video message at the end of two days of consultations with party leaders, "I intend to assign next Sunday a member of the Knesset to form the government."
He explained that 67 MPs recommended appointing Eisenkot, compared to 46 who recommended appointing Netanyahu, while seven abstained from recommending any candidate.
Neither camp achieved an absolute majority of 61 seats out of 120 in the Knesset. Eisenkot's camp won 48 seats, and the two Arab lists, the unified and the joint, recommended his appointment, which together won 19 seats in a result described as historic.
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The Joint List, which won 11 seats, announced in a statement before meeting with Herzog that it would recommend appointing Eisenkot.
She pointed out in her statement, "The importance of widening the gap between them. This is a step that enhances the chances of replacing the government and narrows the way for various attempts to form a national unity government that will keep Netanyahu in power."
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The "Torah Judaism" party refrained from recommending that Herzog reassign the task to Netanyahu, even though it had previously supported him in five elections.
Netanyahu's office said in a statement that the party, which won seven seats in the elections, informed him that it "decided not to recommend any member of the Knesset to form the government."
The party represents ultra-Orthodox Jews of Ashkenazi origin whose roots go back mainly to Europe.
The party, along with the extremist Sephardic Shas party, whose roots often go back to the Middle East and North Africa, focuses on exempting religious students from compulsory military service.
Netanyahu maintained this exemption, but did not succeed in turning it into law, amid widespread dissatisfaction among large segments of Israelis, among whom reserve soldiers are forced to perform repeated tours of duty due to the wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.
"In any government that will be formed later, our immediate priority will be to settle the situation of Torah students," said Isaac Pindros, a representative of the "Torah Judaism" party.
On the other hand, Eisenkot, the former chief of staff who seeks to unite the centrist and center-right forces, adheres to ending exemptions from military service, while some of his allies have directed sharp criticism at the ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Once chosen by Herzog, the candidate will have 28 days to attempt to form a government, with the possibility of extending it for an additional 14 days.
Netanyahu will remain prime minister in a caretaker government until a new coalition is formed, or if that is not possible, new elections are held.
The president has broad powers to choose the person he believes is most suitable to form a coalition. He is not obligated to choose the leader of the party with the largest number of seats.
President Herzog began consultations with party leaders on Wednesday evening, and said, “In order to prevent another round of elections and build a stable and good government here for the people of Israel, I expect the parties and their representatives to understand that in the current reality, it is not possible to fulfill every commitment and promise.”
Herzog also expressed his confidence in the ability of the General Security Agency (Shin Bet) to investigate allegations of foreign interference in the elections, and appealed to everyone to be patient.
But he warned that Israeli Arabs — who make up about a fifth of the population and often refer to themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel — “should not be subject to demonization.”
He said: "I condemn the rudeness and racist expressions that we have heard recently. They have no place towards any group of society in Israel."
Earlier, the head of the Central Elections Committee, Judge Noam Solberg, said at a meeting of the Central Elections Committee that information from the Israeli General Security Agency (Shin Bet) seemed to indicate “a wide-ranging phenomenon that includes the flow of large funds to Israel from foreign countries,” some of which are hostile.
He said he believes further investigation is needed "to connect the dots and quantify the magnitude of the phenomenon with a high degree of certainty."
Israeli media reported last week that the committee received an allegation that Qatar provided funding aimed at increasing participation in elections in Arab societies. The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically denied this.
