What's going on in Israel?

During the government formation process that started after the general elections in Israel on October 27, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's effort to maintain his power was dealt a heavy blow.

The fact that the United Torah Judaism party, one of the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) allies, decided not to support any candidate and the Arab parties stood behind Netanyahu's main rival, former Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, shook Netanyahu's majority base in the parliament, despite coming first in the polls.

According to the election results, the Likud Party led by Netanyahu gained 27 seats in the 120-seat Israeli Parliament (Knesset), maintaining its position as the first party and performing above expectations.

The bloc consisting of nationalist and religious parties led by Likud reached 53 seats in total. This situation, which falls short of the absolute majority of 61 seats, has become even more difficult against Netanyahu with the attitude of the United Torah Judaism party, which plays a key role in the struggle to gain the authority to form a government.

The party, which has long been Netanyahu's coalition partner and is one of the two main parties representing ultra-Orthodox Jewish voters, decided today not to propose any prime minister candidates.

Meanwhile, Eisenkot's anti-Netanyahu bloc, consisting of four Jewish parties between the center left and the right, held 48 seats.

Just like Netanyahu, Eisenkot has so far rejected the possibility of forming a joint government with the two Arab parties in Israel.

On the other hand, one of the two parties representing the Arab minority in Israel, which achieved a historic success in the elections and won 19 seats, announced its support for Eisenkot today; The other Arab party is expected to make a similar decision later in the day.

When neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot could reach the majority in the Knesset on their own, President Isaac Herzog, whose powers are largely representative but bears the responsibility of determining the candidate who will form the government in such crisis periods, stepped in.

Herzog, who started consultations with small parties on Wednesday after the official election results were announced, will continue his negotiations according to the size of the parties and will complete the process by meeting separately with Eisenkot's Yashar party and then with Netanyahu's Likud party tonight at his official residence in Jerusalem.

Seeking consensus, President Herzog called on political actors to avoid dragging the country into another early election.

Herzog said, "It is enough for anyone with common sense to look at the security and diplomacy challenges ahead of us, the changing region around us, and remember the problems that divide us from within, to understand the enormous responsibility we bear."

Herzog has until November 11 to decide who he will give the task of forming a government.

Netanyahu will continue to serve as prime minister of the interim government until a new coalition is formed or a possible early election that will become mandatory if the candidate fails.