Herzog Taps Netanyahu Rival Gadi Eisenkot to Try Forming Israel's Next Government

On Saturday, November 7, 2026, President Isaac Herzog's office announced that Gadi Eisenkot, the former military chief and Benjamin Netanyahu's strongest rival, would be invited to the President's Residence the following day and tasked with forming Israel's next government. The decision followed an October 27 election that left neither man with a clear route to power.

The numbers explain the deadlock. Netanyahu's Likud won 27 seats, more than any other single party in the 120-seat Knesset, but his wider religious-nationalist coalition took only 53, short of the 61 needed for a majority. Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader, lost that majority in the vote yet still holds the largest bloc in parliament, and he is fighting to remain in office.

Eisenkot's Yashar party finished second with 21 seats. His coalition, which spans four Jewish-led parties from the centre-left to the right, won 48 seats in total. Two parties representing Israel's Arab minority won an unprecedented 19 seats. With their backing, Eisenkot would have a majority, but he has declined to join forces with them. Arab leaders, angered by what they regard as the racist policies of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, nominated him to try first anyway, which gave him the most endorsements. Herzog's role is largely ceremonial, and nominating a candidate to build a coalition is part of it.

Eisenkot now has 28 days to put together a government, with a possible 14-day extension. Weeks of protracted negotiation are expected. He has three possible routes: a minority government supported from outside by Arab parties; a coalition with ultra-Orthodox parties that he and his allies have shunned in the past; or a unity government with Netanyahu. Analysts say none of the three is likely to materialise.

If he fails, another candidate can try, and if that candidate fails, parliament can nominate someone else. The whole process has a deadline of around 100 days, after which, if no one has succeeded, another election is held.

Eisenkot is 66, the son of Moroccan immigrants, and would be the country's first prime minister from the Mizrahi community, Jews who trace their roots to West Asia and North Africa. He is reserved and shy of the media, and entered politics only in 2022. After Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, he briefly served in Netanyahu's wartime cabinet before returning to the opposition. From there he publicly criticised Netanyahu's leadership, including his handling of the military campaign in Gaza, and has sworn not to serve in a government with him.

The war has also cost his family. Since 2023, a son and two nephews of Eisenkot have been killed fighting in Gaza, and that loss is tied up with his public standing. On the campaign trail he stressed his security credentials, citing the "Dahiyeh doctrine" of answering attacks with disproportionate force, which he applied as a commander in Israel's 2006 war with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

He has also criticised settler violence against Palestinians, which has surged since 2023 and strained Israel's ties with Western states. He opposes Netanyahu's far-right partners Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom have faced sanctions from some Western countries for inciting violence against Palestinians. What to watch next is whether Eisenkot's refusal to ally formally with Arab parties holds through the 28 days, or whether one of his three paths opens.