JERUSALEM — Israel’s new parliament was sworn in on Tuesday without a new government, after a deadlocked general election stripped Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of his parliamentary majority but left his main rivals with no clear path to power either.
The 120 lawmakers elected in the October 27 vote took their oaths of office in the 26th Knesset, nearly half of them serving for the first time. Presiding over the ceremony, President Isaac Herzog told the members: “You must do everything to avoid a repeat election.”
The final count, published on November 4, gave Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud alliance with far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties 53 of the Knesset’s 120 seats. Gadi Eisenkot’s center-right Yashar party and its patchwork of partner factions hold 48 seats. The Arab-led parties hold 19 seats. A government needs 61.
Eisenkot, a former army chief, was tasked by Herzog on Sunday with forming a government after securing the backing of 67 members of the Knesset, compared with 46 for Netanyahu. He initially has until December 6 to assemble a coalition, and he can seek a two-week extension to December 20. If both Eisenkot and Netanyahu fail, another election could follow.
Netanyahu remains caretaker prime minister until a new candidate manages to form a coalition. On the day of the swearing-in, he proposed a unity government and tied the offer to the confrontation with Iran, telling ultra-Orthodox lawmakers that a narrow Eisenkot-led government “must not be formed.” Eisenkot rejected the offer the same afternoon, saying “we must act urgently to establish a national emergency government.”
Eisenkot’s path is narrow. His bloc reaches 61 only with the support of the Arab-led parties, Ra’am and the Joint List, which won a combined 19 seats, their strongest showing to date after a rise in turnout among Arab voters, or with defectors from Netanyahu’s bloc. Three of the parties in Eisenkot’s bloc have opposed including the Arab parties in a coalition, and the ultra-Orthodox parties have so far said they will not join an Eisenkot-led government.
Eisenkot has set out four conditions for parties and lawmakers seeking to join his proposed government: recognition of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state; acceptance of the values of its Declaration of Independence; support for mandatory military, national or civilian service for all citizens, including communities currently exempt; and recognition of Hamas as a terrorist organization, alongside a commitment to dismantling its military and governing capabilities.
His bloc moved quickly to assert control of parliament. On Tuesday it chose former minister Matan Kahana of Eisenkot’s Yashar party as its candidate for Knesset speaker, to replace Amir Ohana of Netanyahu’s Likud. Sixty-seven lawmakers signed a request to remove Ohana, and the speaker said he has scheduled the vote on his replacement for Tuesday, November 17. Controlling the speaker’s chair would let Eisenkot’s bloc advance legislation while coalition talks continue.
The bloc also submitted a series of bills on its first day, including legislation to establish a state commission of inquiry into the October 7, 2023, attacks, to impose term limits on the prime minister, and to repeal the judicial overhaul that divided the country before the war. The election, widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership, has produced a fragmented parliament and a period of uncertainty over who will govern Israel next.
Source: Reuters
