Eisenkot is expected to receive the mandate, and the road to a government runs through a confidence vote

Sunday’s expected decision would give Gadi Eisenkot time to negotiate a government. His 67 recommendations leave a separate question unanswered: which parties will help his proposed coalition win its first vote in parliament?

Gadi Eisenkot is expected to be given the task of assembling Israel’s next government on Sunday, November 8, according to Ynet’s reporting on Saturday. President Isaac Herzog has announced Sunday as his intended date for assigning the mandate, while his official statement has yet to identify the recipient.

The negotiations now turn on specific commitments: who will join the coalition, who will vote for it from outside, and who might abstain. The recommendations delivered to Herzog do not settle those decisions.

What the mandate would set in motion

Eisenkot would initially have 28 days to put a government together. Herzog could allow extra time, up to 14 additional days in total, but an extension would require the president’s decision.

A successful negotiation must then reach the Knesset, Israel’s 120-seat parliament. The proposed government presents its policy guidelines, ministers and division of responsibilities and asks lawmakers to express confidence in it. If the Knesset grants confidence, the new government takes office at that point. Netanyahu’s outgoing administration continues its work until a successor is constituted.

The vote that makes a minority government possible

The coalition Eisenkot wants to assemble around Yashar!, B’Yachad (Together), the Democrats and Yisrael Beytenu would start with 48 seats. A group that size would need a favorable voting arrangement involving lawmakers beyond its own membership.

At the initial vote on a proposed government, supporters must outnumber opponents. Abstaining lawmakers are left out of that calculation. The coalition parties therefore do not have to hold 61 seats themselves for a government to be approved.

Consider a purely illustrative result: 48 lawmakers vote in favor, 46 oppose and 26 abstain. The proposal passes. No agreement on that distribution has been announced; the example explains why negotiations over abstentions can matter as much as talks about joining the coalition.

Outside support means a party can cast votes for a government while remaining outside its coalition. Abstention contributes no affirmative votes, but it can keep the opposition total below the number voting in favor. A party’s recommendation to Herzog is not a commitment to either voting position.

What the 67 recommendations establish

Herzog’s office reported that factions representing 67 lawmakers recommended Eisenkot, compared with 46 for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. United Torah Judaism, with seven seats, chose no candidate. Eisenkot’s endorsements came from the four parties in his bloc as well as Ra’am and the Joint List.

That gives Eisenkot a substantial lead in recommendations. It also brings together parties with different ideas about how the next government should function. United Torah Judaism’s decision to withhold a recommendation, for example, is not a promise to abstain when a cabinet is presented.

Herzog acknowledged this problem in his November 5 statement. He said the ability to assemble a government remained unclear because of cooperation vetoes both between the blocs and within them, and announced further personal discussions with party leaders.

Liberman challenges the proposed route to office

Political journalist Amit Segal reported on Telegram on Friday that Eisenkot was pursuing a 48-seat minority government with external backing from the Arab parties and a possible abstention by United Torah Judaism. This was an account of a proposed route to office, rather than an agreement announced by all the parties concerned.

Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman has drawn a different boundary. In remarks reported by Ynet on Friday, he opposed a government dependent on Ra’am or the Joint List, including one enabled by their abstention. He called for efforts to form a 61-member coalition without the two parties.

At the same time, Liberman said compromises were possible on other issues, including the military draft law. That position leaves room for negotiations with the Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, parties. It also exposes a disagreement inside Eisenkot’s intended core coalition: Liberman’s party is part of the 48-seat base, but its leader rejects the outside backing described in the minority-government plan.

Negotiating principles still need an agreement

Eisenkot’s own published conditions, reported by N12, would allow further parties or lawmakers to join at the outset or later. They cover Israel’s Jewish and democratic character, the values of its Declaration of Independence, military or national or civilian service for everyone, and recognition of Hamas as a terrorist organization with a commitment to dismantling its military and governing power.

Service obligations thus remain among Eisenkot’s conditions, while Liberman has identified conscription as an area where he is prepared to compromise. The reporting reviewed for this article does not provide an agreed formula resolving that difference.

The next useful developments to watch are specific commitments on membership and voting, together with the terms attached to them. Those commitments will show whether Eisenkot’s advantage at the President’s Residence can become enough parliamentary support to take office.