Israeli opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot coalition talks after Netanyahu, Digi Mart USA News: Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, could be in trouble after Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of the opposition, was asked to form the next government following elections last month that left no political grouping with a majority in parliament.
The request by Israeli President Isaac Herzog triggered a 28-day negotiation period, with a possible 14-day extension, during which Eisenkot will try to assemble a workable coalition. If he fails, the opportunity will likely fall to Netanyahu.
Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff, faces a difficult task. His Yashar party and its allies won 48 seats, well short of the 61 needed for a Knesset majority.
Netanyahu’s bloc won 53 seats, while the remaining 19 seats are held by Arab parties, which have vowed not to enter a government with the current prime minister.
Arab parties won an unprecedented number of seats this year after a high turnout among Israeli-Arab voters, who make up 20 per cent of the electorate. On Sunday, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the United Arab List intended to support an Eisenkot-led coalition, even without a coalition agreement.
Party leader Mansour Abbas previously said his party would “act in accordance with the will of the Arab public, which is to change the government.”
In consultations with incoming lawmakers, 67 recommended Eisenkot for prime minister, compared with 46 for Netanyahu. The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, which holds seven seats, also refused to recommend Netanyahu after negotiations over preserving the draft exemption for Haredi Yeshiva students broke down.
Unless he pursues a minority government, Eisenkot will likely need to win over the more right-wing elements of his bloc to accept working with the support of Arab parties, while also making concessions to the ultra-Orthodox parties. That may mean abandoning his pledge to exempt just three per cent of each draft cohort.
Before the elections, several opposition parties had committed to rejecting Arab support.
Ahron Bregman, a senior teaching fellow at King’s College London and author of several books on Israel, said that mathematically Eisenkot can form a government that “will have support in the Knesset, but for that he will have to work indirectly with religious and Arab parties, which means giving up pre-election pledges.”
Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, told The i Paper that the main obstacle may come from within Eisenkot’s own bloc, in the form of right-wing politician Avigdor Lieberman, who heads the Yisrael Beiteinu party. Lieberman “thinks he should be prime minister but he won’t say it out loud because he only has [seven] seats,” Mekelberg added.
Bregman said that in an ideal world Eisenkot would invite the Arab parties to join his coalition, but “such a move will be difficult for the average Israeli to swallow.”
As a commander during the 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Eisenkot developed the so-called “Dahiya doctrine,” which advocates the overwhelming use of force and destruction of civilian infrastructure in areas containing forces resisting the Israeli military. If Eisenkot must rely on the support, tacit or explicit, of Arab parties, Mekelberg said it would likely be in exchange for measures to halt violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and efforts to curb violent crime within Palestinian communities in Israel.
Eisenkot has described attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as “Jewish terror” and has promised a crackdown on illegal settlements. However, he remains opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state, calling a two-state solution “delusional.”
As for Netanyahu, his future hangs in the balance. He faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases stemming from investigations that began in 2016.
One case involves the alleged receipt of more than $200,000 worth of luxury gifts, including cigars and champagne, in exchange for political favors. Netanyahu could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty.
The trials are the first time an Israeli prime minister has been criminally charged while still in office, and they have fueled speculation that Netanyahu’s aggression toward Gaza, Lebanon and Iran has been partly driven by a desire to retain power and avoid prison. Mekelberg said, “Netanyahu thrives on the conflict with the international community because he needs to play the strongman in order to stay in power,” adding that losing office could make life difficult because “he can’t manipulate the court, and for instance, not show up because there is an emergency.”
Netanyahu has formally asked Herzog for a pardon, which both Bregman and Mekelberg believe he may receive after leaving office. “I watched Netanyahu’s speech last night calling for a government of national unity, and I could feel his panic,” Bregman said.
“I believe he will try to end his corruption trial by some agreement with the prosecution, or perhaps Herzog will intervene to end this saga.”
Since the election, Netanyahu has promoted claims that Arab parties stole the election, without providing evidence, and has accused them of gaining seats through “votes bought for cash.” Bregman said that while Netanyahu previously tried to deny the election results, he is now moving toward calling for a government of national unity, something he does “only when the knife is very close to his throat.”
