Joint List Backs Eisenkot, Pushing Him Past the 61-Seat Line

The Joint List is putting its weight behind Gadi Eisenkot. The alliance of Arab-led parties said Thursday it will tell President Isaac Herzog that evening that its lawmakers recommend Eisenkot be handed the job of building a government, according to Al Jazeera.

The math lands hard. Once the Joint List's 11 members formally file that recommendation, Eisenkot is expected to command 67 backers in the 120-seat Knesset — comfortably above the 61 needed to claim a majority. Earlier in the day, the Arab-led Ra'am party, which holds eight seats, said it would recommend him too.

The numbers behind that leverage are striking. Arab-led parties took a record 19 seats in last week's general election, giving them rare influence over who gets to assemble Israel's next coalition.

On the other side, Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc holds 53 seats — but may not collect all 53 endorsements. Degel HaTorah, which controls four of United Torah Judaism's seven seats, said it will recommend neither candidate, breaking with Netanyahu over his coalition's failure to pass legislation exempting Haredi men from military service, The Times of Israel reported.

Herzog has already certified last week's election results and started the consultation round with party leaders. On Wednesday he said he met with representatives of Religious Zionism and Zehut, Shas and Yisrael Beytenu and collected their recommendations, with talks continuing Thursday.

Once consultations wrap, Herzog picks the candidate he judges best placed to build a coalition — almost certainly Netanyahu or Eisenkot. He has several days to announce it, then the nominee gets 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension. If neither man pulls it off, Israel heads back to the polls early next year.