Israel's Joint List backs Gadi Eisenkot to form next government

Israel's Arab-led Joint List alliance said on Thursday it will recommend opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot to President Isaac Herzog as the candidate to form the country's next government, following last week's general election.

The alliance said in a statement that it would tell Herzog of its decision that evening. Once the Joint List's 11 lawmakers formally submit their recommendation, Eisenkot is expected to have the backing of 67 lawmakers, above the 61-seat majority threshold in the Knesset, Israel's 120-seat parliament.

Ra'am, another Arab-led party holding eight seats, had said earlier that it would also recommend Eisenkot.

Record showing for Arab-led parties

Arab-led parties won a record 19 seats in last week's election, a result that could give them significant influence over who governs next.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc holds 53 seats but may not gather 53 endorsements. Degel HaTorah, which holds four of United Torah Judaism's seven seats, said it would recommend neither candidate. The ultra-Orthodox faction broke with Netanyahu over his coalition's failure to pass legislation exempting Haredi men from military service, The Times of Israel reported.

Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed, without providing evidence, that Arab parties committed fraud with foreign backing. He and his Likud party have cited a handful of cases, including the arrests of three political activists suspected of bribing voters before polls opened and of connections to Ra'am, which denies any involvement. Likud also warned that Zionist parties cooperating with the Arab bloc would be "dangerous to Israel".

Israel's Central Elections Committee certified the results on Wednesday after finding no evidence of fraud. Herzog has accepted the outcome and begun consultations with party leaders. On Wednesday he said he had met representatives of Religious Zionism and Zehut, Shas and Yisrael Beytenu, and that talks would continue on Thursday.

Herzog has backed investigating suspected interference but warned against smearing voters who are Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up about 20 percent of the population and for whom he said he had "great respect". "I condemn the coarseness and racist expressions that we have heard recently," he said.

What happens next

Once consultations end, Herzog will choose the candidate he considers best placed to assemble a coalition, almost certainly Netanyahu or Eisenkot. He has several days to announce his decision. The nominee then has 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension. If neither succeeds, Israel would hold another election early next year.

Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said that if Eisenkot forms a government he would become Israel's next prime minister, with Netanyahu likely leading the opposition. She said Eisenkot needs 61 Knesset votes, meaning he requires the support of the Palestinian-Israeli parties he does not want to partner with, and would most likely have to reach a deal in which they at least abstain.

Source: Al Jazeera.