Netanyahu and Eisenkot both push for a new government as Israel’s deadlocked parliament is sworn in
President Isaac Herzog handed Gadi Eisenkot the mandate to form a government on Sunday after an election that left no bloc with a majority; and on Tuesday, as the new Knesset was sworn in, both the former general and the caretaker prime minister were calling for a national government, on very different terms.
Published 10 November 2026 · 22:21 GMT
The summary
Israel’s 27 October election gave Binyamin Netanyahu’s right-wing and religious bloc 53 seats and Gadi Eisenkot’s four-party opposition alliance 48 in the 120-seat Knesset; eight short, in both cases, of the 61 needed for a majority. President Isaac Herzog formally handed Eisenkot the mandate to form a government on Sunday 8 November, after 67 lawmakers recommended him during consultations, against 46 for Netanyahu; seven ultra-Orthodox lawmakers abstained.
The three lenses
- WestThe West reads a survival fight inside the institutions Western coverage treats the deadlock as a contest over Netanyahu’s personal survival, played out through procedure.
- EastThe East reads a procedure with a deadline, not a drama Coverage from East Asia’s information environment reads the same events as a procedural transition with a fixed clock.
- Global SouthThe South reads a record Arab vote, and a claim of theft Coverage from the Global South puts the Arab parties at the centre of the story, where Western reporting often treats them as a complication.
Key facts
- Israel’s 27 October election gave Binyamin Netanyahu’s right-wing and religious bloc 53 seats and Gadi Eisenkot’s four-party opposition alliance 48 in the 120-seat Knesset; eight short, in both cases, of the 61 needed for a majority. CNA / Xinhua
- President Isaac Herzog formally handed Eisenkot the mandate to form a government on Sunday 8 November, after 67 lawmakers recommended him during consultations, against 46 for Netanyahu; seven ultra-Orthodox lawmakers abstained. Times of Israel / CNA
- Eisenkot, 66, a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces who leads the centrist Yashar party, has 28 days to build a coalition, with a possible 14-day extension from the president. CNA / Xinhua
- The newly elected Knesset was sworn in on Tuesday 10 November, with Netanyahu remaining prime minister in a caretaker capacity until a coalition is formed. Al Jazeera
- On Tuesday Eisenkot agreed with Naftali Bennett, Yair Golan, Avigdor Liberman and Yair Lapid on candidates for key Knesset posts, nominating Matan Kahana of Yashar for Speaker. Times of India / Times of Israel
- Netanyahu renewed his call on Monday 10 November for a unity government of all Zionist parties led by Likud as the largest party, while repeating his claim that the election was “stolen” by Arab parties; without offering evidence. The Hindu BusinessLine / Indian Express
Two rivals, one phrase, opposite meanings
Israel swore in a new parliament on Tuesday 10 November without knowing who will govern it. The Knesset’s 120 members took their oaths two weeks after an election that stripped Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition of its majority and handed no one else one either. Netanyahu stays on as caretaker prime minister until a coalition is formed. And the two men at the centre of the deadlock spent the day using the same words to mean different things: both Gadi Eisenkot, the former military chief now tasked with forming a government, and Netanyahu are calling for a national government. Eisenkot means an emergency government under his leadership; Netanyahu means a unity government led by Likud, with himself still at its head. President Isaac Herzog gave Eisenkot the mandate on Sunday 8 November, after consultations in which 67 lawmakers recommended him and 46 recommended Netanyahu. If he cannot, the mandate is expected to pass to Netanyahu; and if neither man succeeds, Israel returns to the polls in the spring.
The arithmetic that makes every route narrow
The numbers from the 27 October vote are not in dispute, and they are what make the deadlock so tight. Netanyahu’s right-wing and religious bloc won 53 seats. Eisenkot’s four-party alliance, Yashar, Together, The Democrats and Yisrael Beytenu, won 48. The Arab-led parties won a record 19 seats and endorsed Eisenkot, but most Jewish opposition leaders have ruled out including them in a government or relying on them at all. Seven lawmakers from United Torah Judaism abstained from recommending anyone, which is why Netanyahu’s endorsement tally fell to 46 even though his bloc holds 53 seats. Eisenkot has set four conditions for any partner: recognition of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, acceptance of the values in the Declaration of Independence, agreement to universal civil or military conscription, and a declaration that Hamas is a terrorist organisation that must be dismantled. He has invited Likud and Religious Zionism to join on those terms, and has said repeatedly that he will not serve under Netanyahu. On Tuesday he agreed with Naftali Bennett, Yair Golan, Avigdor Liberman and Yair Lapid on candidates for the Knesset’s key posts, including Matan Kahana of Yashar for Speaker. Netanyahu renewed his appeal on Monday in a video statement, calling on opposition leaders to join a unity government of all Zionist parties and saying he was ready to enter talks immediately. He has also repeated his claim that the election was “stolen” by Arab parties, and alleged that foreign funding boosted Arab turnout; claims for which he has offered no evidence.
Which of the three doors opens?
What no reporting has yet settled is which of Eisenkot’s three routes, if any, can actually deliver 61 votes. A minority government sustained by Arab parties from outside the coalition would need Liberman’s acquiescence, and Liberman has explicitly ruled out a minority government or one reliant on Arab-led parties. A deal with the ultra-Orthodox parties would require agreement on military exemptions for their community; the very issue on which Eisenkot’s conscription principle was designed to draw a line. A unity government with Netanyahu would require one of the two rivals to accept the other’s leadership, and neither has given any sign of doing so. It is also unclear whether Netanyahu’s unity appeal is a genuine offer or a device to run down Eisenkot’s clock. And it is unclear how much a caretaker administration can do while the war with Iran continues. The Speaker vote, expected within days, will be the first public test of whether the opposition bloc that agreed on paper on Tuesday can vote together in the chamber.
A caretaker in wartime, and a clock that runs out in spring
This matters because Israel is being governed by a caretaker in the middle of a war. The conflict with Iran has not paused for the coalition talks, and decisions about force and diplomacy are being taken by a prime minister whose parliament has just told him his majority is gone. That is the emergency Eisenkot invoked at the mandate ceremony, calling Israel’s situation a state of emergency approaching a point of no return. It matters, too, because the outcome will settle whether the country’s longest-serving prime minister leaves office through the ballot box or survives through a unity deal. Israel’s defence posture in the region; including the permanent defence attaché office it is opening in Rabat; will also be steered by whichever government emerges. Beyond Israel’s borders, the Arab parties’ record 19 seats have made them potential kingmakers, and how the Jewish parties handle that will shape Arab citizens’ relationship with the state for years. If no government forms, the fallback is a new election within roughly 100 days, fought while a caretaker government manages a war.
The 67-vote paradox: a majority for a man, not for a government
Eisenkot already has a majority and does not have one. Sixty-seven lawmakers recommended him, six more than the threshold for governing, yet his alliance holds only 48 seats, and the 19 votes that carried him belong to parties his partners refuse to govern with. That is the paradox the next four weeks must resolve: each route requires someone to break a promise. The Arab parties would rather support a government from outside than join it, but that still requires Liberman to accept Arab votes keeping a government alive; the thing he has ruled out. The ultra-Orthodox parties want military exemptions continued, which would breach Eisenkot’s pledge of universal service. And a unity government would require one rival to accept the other’s leadership, which neither man’s record suggests. Netanyahu’s leverage is real but narrow: Likud is still the largest party, and every day Eisenkot fails strengthens the argument that only a unity government under Likud can end the paralysis. Eisenkot’s leverage is time and the trial: the longer Netanyahu governs as caretaker, the closer the corruption proceedings come to a verdict. The Speaker vote will show which leverage is stronger.
What happens when the taboos break?
The second-order effects of this deadlock will outlive whichever government emerges from it. If Eisenkot forms a minority government sustained by Arab parties from outside, it will be the first time Arab votes have kept an Israeli government in office, a precedent that would change every future coalition negotiation. If he instead buys ultra-Orthodox support with exemptions, he will have traded the conscription principle that defined his campaign for the votes to govern. If the two rivals settle for a unity government, Netanyahu survives the voters’ verdict, but such governments are fragile, and this one would be born of mutual distrust. And if both men fail, the spring campaign will be fought over the fraud claims Netanyahu has already made, with the legitimacy of the Arab vote itself on the ballot. Beyond Israel, the government’s shape will set the tone of the war with Iran: unity under Netanyahu would signal continuity, while an Eisenkot government would face immediate pressure from Washington to define its war aims.
The Speaker vote first, then four weeks of arithmetic
The immediate test is the election of the Knesset Speaker, where the opposition’s Tuesday agreement, Matan Kahana as its candidate, will be put to a vote within days. Watch three things: whether Liberman softens his refusal of a minority government; whether the ultra-Orthodox parties enter talks and at what price on military service; and whether Netanyahu’s unity appeal turns into a concrete offer or stays a slogan. If Eisenkot fails, the mandate is expected to pass to Netanyahu for his own 28 days; if he fails too, a third candidate gets a final two weeks, and after that Israel votes again. The first hard deadline is therefore the Speaker vote: it will show whether the 67 lawmakers who recommended Eisenkot can still vote together.
The three lenses
West Lens:
The West reads a survival fight inside the institutions Western coverage treats the deadlock as a contest over Netanyahu’s personal survival, played out through procedure. The Wall Street Journal frames Herzog’s decision as a blow to the longest-serving leader, and stresses that Netanyahu’s imperative is to prevent Eisenkot from succeeding so that he remains in power as caretaker until new elections. The Times of Israel’s reporting dwells on the ceremony’s choreography; Herzog’s insistence that Likud remains the largest party, and the pointed omission of Itamar Ben Gvir’s party.
East Lens:
The East reads a procedure with a deadline, not a drama Coverage from East Asia’s information environment reads the same events as a procedural transition with a fixed clock. Xinhua’s explainer walks through the mechanics, the 28 days, the possible 14-day extension, the 2021 precedent in which the mandate passed to Yair Lapid, and notes that a minority government needs only to win a confidence vote, not 61 seats. CNA, reporting from Singapore, leads with the numbers and the calendar, and quotes an analyst telling its Asia First programme that every potential partner must make a difficult compromise.
South Lens:
The South reads a record Arab vote, and a claim of theft Coverage from the Global South puts the Arab parties at the centre of the story, where Western reporting often treats them as a complication. Al Jazeera’s report stresses that the new parliament was seated while both leaders claimed the language of national unity, and its correspondent has called Herzog’s choice of Eisenkot the predictable route. Indian coverage dwells on the arithmetic of the Arab vote and on Netanyahu’s fraud claims, noting that he has offered little evidence.
The consensus
- What we agree on
- What we agree on: the 27 October election produced no winner; Netanyahu’s bloc took 53 seats, Eisenkot’s alliance 48, and neither reaches the 61 needed for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset; President Herzog gave Eisenkot the first mandate on 8 November after 67 lawmakers recommended him against 46 for Netanyahu; the new Knesset was sworn in on 10 November with Netanyahu as caretaker prime minister; and both men are now publicly calling for a national government.
- What we don't agree on
- What we disagree on: whether a government can be built without breaking a taboo; Eisenkot’s camp says a national emergency government is possible on his four principles, while Netanyahu’s camp says only a unity government under Likud can hold; whether Arab parties, who won a record 19 seats, may legitimately sustain a government from outside; and whether Netanyahu’s claim that the election was “stolen” describes fraud or describes a result he refuses to accept.
- What we know
- What we know: the seat arithmetic (53–48, with 19 for the Arab-led parties and seven ultra-Orthodox abstentions in the consultations); the 28-day mandate clock with a possible 14-day extension; Eisenkot’s four conditions for partners; the Tuesday agreement among Eisenkot, Bennett, Golan, Liberman and Lapid on Knesset posts; and Netanyahu’s renewed unity appeal on Monday.
- What we don't know yet
- What we do not know: whether Eisenkot can assemble 61 votes without the ultra-Orthodox parties or Arab support from outside; whether Liberman will accept a minority government; whether Netanyahu would serve under Eisenkot or only lead; what the ultra-Orthodox parties will demand for military exemptions; and how long a caretaker government can steer the war with Iran.
- What we expect
- What we expect: coalition talks to dominate the next four weeks, a fight over the Knesset Speakership as the first test of the opposition’s discipline, and, if Eisenkot fails, the mandate passing to Netanyahu, with fresh elections in the spring as the last resort.
Questions, answered
Who is Gadi Eisenkot?
Gadi Eisenkot, 66, is a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces who entered politics in 2022 and leads the centrist Yashar party, the second-largest party in the new Knesset with 21 seats. He briefly served in Netanyahu’s wartime cabinet after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack, then returned to the opposition and became Netanyahu’s principal challenger.
Why can neither side form a government after the election?
The 27 October election gave Netanyahu’s bloc 53 seats and Eisenkot’s alliance 48 in the 120-seat Knesset, and 61 are needed for a majority. Eisenkot won the recommendations of 67 lawmakers, but 19 of those are Arab parties his partners refuse to govern with, and the ultra-Orthodox parties abstained; so no route to 61 is open without breaking a promise.
What is the national emergency government Eisenkot is proposing?
Eisenkot has pledged to form a national emergency government as quickly as possible, built on four principles for any partner: recognition of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, acceptance of the Declaration of Independence, universal civil or military service, and a declaration that Hamas is a terrorist organisation to be dismantled. He has invited Likud to join it under his leadership.
What happens if Eisenkot cannot form a government?
Eisenkot has 28 days from receiving the mandate on 8 November, with a possible 14-day extension from President Herzog. If he fails, the mandate is expected to pass to another candidate, most likely Netanyahu. If that attempt also fails, the Knesset can name a third candidate, and if that fails too Israel will hold fresh elections.
Sources
- CNA / Xinhua
- Times of Israel / CNA
- Al Jazeera (10 Nov 2026); the originating report: the new Knesset sworn in, Netanyahu and Eisenkot both calling for a national government
- Times of India / Times of Israel
- The Hindu BusinessLine / Indian Express