Herzog Nears Call on Who Gets First Shot at Israel's Government

Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, sits down Thursday with Benjamin Netanyahu and his chief rival, Gadi Eisenkot, with less than a week left before he picks which man gets the first shot at building a government. Neither walked away from last month's vote with a clear road to power. So the decision falls to the president, a largely ceremonial role that suddenly carries real weight.

The arithmetic explains the squeeze. Netanyahu's coalition lost its majority, dropping by 15 seats and now holding 53 in the 120-seat Knesset. Eisenkot's Change bloc of Zionist parties has 48. That leaves parties representing Israeli Palestinians as the potential kingmakers, with a record 19 seats — the Joint List at 11 and the more conservative Islamist Ra'am at eight.

The ground shifted beneath all of it. Turnout among Arab Israelis, who make up about 20% of the population, more than doubled to roughly 80%. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza had no vote at all. Yousef Jabareen, who leads Israel's main Palestinian coalition, said voters wanted change after what he described as intensified racism, discrimination, crime and exclusion under the current government.

Jabareen is blunt about the choice facing him, saying the options are not good versus better but what he sees as bad versus even worse, according to Israeli media. He told the Guardian last month that Arab Israeli voters' first demand was to get rid of the Netanyahu government, singling out national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich. Eisenkot has his own conditions for any Arab-backed coalition: recognize Israel as a Jewish state, accept compulsory civil or military service, and denounce Hamas as a terrorist organisation. The Joint List has floated supporting an opposition from the outside through tactical Knesset votes, while Ra'am says it would join an Eisenkot-led government.

Herzog, who has already met delegations from the Palestinian Israeli parties and other smaller factions, urged everyone to help avoid another election. He invoked the security and diplomatic challenges facing the country and the issues tearing it apart from within, saying an immense responsibility rests on its leaders. Netanyahu stays on as caretaker prime minister until a coalition forms — or until voters are sent back to the polls if no candidate can succeed.

The 77-year-old Netanyahu, who remains at risk of losing power, has seized on an election officials' probe into possible vote tampering to question the results, accusing Israeli Palestinian-led parties of stealing the vote. Critics say he and his partners are trying to undermine the outcome, which he denies. Israel's Central Election Committee said Wednesday the election's integrity was not compromised, and its head, supreme court justice Noam Sohlberg, called on elected officials to protect public trust, warning that the peaceful transfer of power is a foundation of democracy. Far-right allies including Ben-Gvir have gone further, calling for Arab party leaders to be arrested and interrogated.