Herzog begins consultations on Israel’s next government after election ruling

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Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, has accepted last week’s certified election results as legally binding and begun meeting party representatives to hear whom they support for prime minister. The consultations, which started on Wednesday and are due to continue on Thursday, come after Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies lost their parliamentary majority. Herzog said the vote was over and it was time to accept the outcome.

The 27 October election left no bloc with the 61 seats needed to govern in the 120-member Knesset. Netanyahu’s coalition won 53 seats, while the bloc led by opposition figure Gadi Eisenkot secured 48. Arab-led parties won a record 19 seats between them, making their positions consequential to efforts to assemble a majority. Possible outcomes include an arrangement between Netanyahu and Eisenkot, or cooperation between Eisenkot and the Arab-led factions.

Herzog’s choice will follow the parties’ recommendations, though the candidate he selects must still build a coalition. Three factions aligned with Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist camp backed him in the initial consultations; Yisrael Beytenu supported Eisenkot. Ra’am has also said it will recommend Eisenkot, bringing his expected endorsements to 56, according to one report. The Joint List has yet to state its position. If it supports Eisenkot, its 11 seats could take him above the threshold, although the arithmetic depends on how the parties ultimately act. Netanyahu’s likely support is also uncertain: Degel HaTorah, which holds four seats within United Torah Judaism, said it would recommend neither candidate, amid a dispute over legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox men from military service. Herzog has several days to name a candidate. That nominee would have 28 days to form a government, with a possible two-week extension; failure could lead to another election early next year.

The president’s decision to recognise the certified result undercuts Netanyahu’s repeated, unsubstantiated claims that Arab-led parties had stolen the vote, possibly with foreign help. The elections commission said its review found no evidence of irregularities that compromised the election or changed its result. A separate Shin Bet inquiry into alleged foreign interference remains open. An intelligence assessment cited at a closed committee meeting referred to substantial funds entering Israel from foreign states, but provided no supporting evidence in the account. The commission’s chair, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, said suspicions remained unproven and that any potential effect appeared limited; he warned that undermining confidence in elections could damage public trust.

The reports share the central account of Herzog accepting the results and beginning consultations, but give different levels of detail. One focuses on the election-fraud allegations, the commission’s findings and the unresolved Shin Bet inquiry, including the intelligence assessment. The other concentrates on coalition arithmetic, party recommendations and the possible paths to a majority, while adding procedural details about the consultation timetable and the next steps. They also describe Eisenkot’s support in slightly different terms: one presents his bloc’s 48 seats, while the other reports Ra’am’s recommendation could raise his expected endorsements to 56 and says the Joint List might support or abstain depending on his preference.

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• www.aljazeera.com