Israel's president will say on Sunday which politician he is asking to form a government, closing two weeks of quiet arithmetic that began with the October 27 election and has left Benjamin Netanyahu short of the numbers he needs.
A majority of recommendations, not of seats
After meetings with every faction at the President's Residence, Isaac Herzog said parties holding 67 seats recommended Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff. Factions holding 46 seats recommended Netanyahu. Eisenkot's camp said the figure is the largest number of recommendations for any candidate since 2015 and asked Herzog to move quickly.
The count shifted in the days after the vote. Netanyahu's bloc won 53 seats on election night, but seven of them belong to United Torah Judaism, which declined to recommend its long-time ally. The anti-Netanyahu side is not one bloc either: 48 seats sit with Jewish-led parties and 19 with Arab-led Ra'am and the Joint List, a record for those parties.
Why the mandate is only the start
A mandate does not create a coalition. The nominee gets 28 days to assemble 61 seats, with the option of asking for 14 more. If that fails, the president can turn to another candidate. If nobody can govern, Israel returns to the polls early next year.
Eisenkot has made recognition of Hamas as a terrorist organisation a condition for parties that want to join him. Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas told Herzog that his party's presence in a government would not weaken the state's ability to fight terrorism, and objected to what he called repeated loyalty tests applied to Arab politicians.
Deals already forming
Channel 12 reported that Avigdor Liberman, a secularist who long refused to sit with Haredi parties, has dropped that objection and is open to a partnership with United Torah Judaism. The report described a possible rotation between Liberman and Eisenkot, alongside talks over a Haredi draft law.
The new Knesset is sworn in on November 10. Ra'am, the Joint List, Yashar, Yisrael Beytenu and the Democrats have asked for an early vote on the speaker, a post that controls the legislative agenda. Netanyahu has claimed without evidence that Arab-led parties stole the election; the election commission found no irregularities.