Herzog resumes talks on who will form next Israeli government

Israeli President Isaac Herzog resumed consultations on Thursday with the parties elected to the 26th Knesset, according to the President’s Residence, as the head of state weighed whom to task with forming the next government.

The United Arab List (Ra’am) recommended that Herzog task Yashar Party leader Gadi Eisenkot with forming a government, the President’s Residence said.

Party chairman Mansour Abbas represented the faction during the consultations in Jerusalem. He was joined by Knesset members Yoav Segalovitz, Walid Taha, Walid Alhwashla and Iman Khatib-Yassin.

The Democrats faction recommended that Herzog task Eisenkot with forming a government.

Knesset members Naama Lazimi, Efrat Rayten and Gilad Kariv represented the faction, along with Gabriela Lasky-Shotz and Yaya Fink.

Kariv told Herzog that the elections had produced “a clear decision of 67 seats against the continuation of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s rule,” Ynet reported.

However, he added that it would be “difficult to translate it into governing reality.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit faction recommended that Herzog task Netanyahu with forming a new government, the President’s Residence said.

The faction was represented by Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, as well as Knesset members Limor Son Har-Melech and Yitzhak Kroizer.

During the consultations, Wasserlauf told Herzog that many people do not trust the election results, Ynet reported.

“Some of them were bought with money for lists that do not recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization,” he said, according to the outlet.

United Torah Judaism told Herzog that it would not recommend any Knesset member to form the next government. The haredi faction’s delegation included lawmakers Yitzhak Goldknopf and Yitzhak Pindrus, as well as Moshe Rosenthal, Amitai Shulman and Moti Babchik.

Pindrus spoke out against the military conscription of yeshivah students and “incitement” against the haredi community, according to Ynet. He told Herzog that any new government must deal with “a reality in which Torah learners are persecuted.”

“Torah learners are persecuted; they are considered criminals,” Goldknopf added.

The Arab-majority Joint List was scheduled to meet with Herzog at 4:45 p.m.

B’Yachad was scheduled for 6 p.m., followed by Yashar at 7:15 p.m. Likud, the final faction on the schedule, was set to meet with Herzog at 8:30 p.m.

Herzog met with representatives of Religious Zionist, Shas, Yisrael Beiteinu and Zehut on Wednesday evening. Religious Zionist, Shas and Zehut recommended Netanyahu, while Yisrael Beiteinu backed Eisenkot.

On Tuesday night, Herzog urged the newly elected factions to work toward a stable government and avoid another election. He spoke as he accepted the European Jewish Congress’s highest honor in Tel Aviv.

He called on party leaders to come to the President’s Residence with “an open mind and an open heart.”

“The government of Israel is not a zero-sum game between winners and losers,” he said. “We have to find the right mechanisms to have a stable government and not to vote for further elections.”

Netanyahu: Government reliant on Islamists would ‘tear us apart’

Netanyahu warned on Wednesday that an Israeli government dependent on Islamist parties would be unable to confront radical Islam and would “tear us apart from within.”

In a video statement posted on X, the premier called the prospect “a matter of our very survival.”

Netanyahu renewed his call for a broad national government led by his Likud party and headed by him, comprised of all members of his right-wing political bloc and any other Zionist parties willing to join.

He accused opposition leaders of pursuing a government dependent on parties that support terrorism.

Netanyahu also demanded a full investigation into suspected foreign interference in the Oct. 27 Knesset election. He said that Justice Noam Sohlberg, chairman of the Central Elections Committee, had directed the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) to open a security investigation.

However, Sohlberg has said that even if the suspicions of foreign funding were substantiated, they would not invalidate the election results.

Eisenkot vows to ‘renew and deepen’ US-Israel partnership

Eisenkot addressed Israel’s friends in the United States and around the world in an X post on Wednesday, pledging to “renew and deepen” the partnership with Washington under his leadership.

“The Israeli people have voted for change and to replace the current government,” Eisenkot wrote in English.

Netanyahu’s right-wing and religious bloc won 53 seats in the Oct. 27 Knesset election. The Zionist opposition parties—Yashar, B’Yachad (Together), the Democrats and Yisrael Beiteinu—won 48.

The Joint List and Ra’am together secured 19 seats, leaving neither bloc with the 61 seats needed for a Knesset majority.