Political turmoil has intensified regarding the formation of a new government in Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s path to return to power appears to be difficult. The country’s two Arab-led parties have decided to support opposition leader Gadi Eysenkot to become the next Prime Minister. After this decision, Eysenkot is likely to get the support of 67 MPs in Parliament, which is much more than the majority of 61 seats required to form the government.
On Thursday, the Joint List alliance and the Ra’am party announced their support for Eizenkot. With the support of both parties, the picture of formation of Israel’s next government can change. On the other hand, Netanyahu’s coalition is facing difficulties in gathering support. In such a situation, the role of President Isaac Herzog has also become important, who has to invite leaders to form the next government after talks with political parties.
What is the stance of Arab parties?
The Joint List coalition announced on Thursday that it would recommend President Isaac Herzog to hand over the responsibility of forming the next government to Gadi Eizenkot. Earlier, another Arab-led party, Ra’am, had also announced its support to Eizenkot.
According to Al Jazeera’s report, the Joint List said in its statement, “The Joint List announced today, Thursday, that it will this evening inform the President of the State, Isaac Herzog, of its decision to recommend Gadi Eiseenkot to the task of forming a government.”
Eysenkot has the support of how many MPs?
Israel’s parliament of 120 members is called the Knesset. Joint List has 11 MPs, while Ra’am Party has eight MPs. In this way both the parties have a total of 19 seats. This is said to be the largest number ever for Arab-led parties in Israel’s Parliament.
After the support of these two parties, Aizenkot is expected to get the support of a total of 67 MPs. This is six more than the figure of 61 seats required to form the government. If this support is officially recorded, then Eizenkot’s claim to form the government could be quite strong.
Why did the difficulty increase for Netanyahu?
In this effort to form a new government, Benjamin Netanyahu’s political camp appears to be weakening. Netanyahu’s coalition currently has 53 seats. In such a situation, he is facing difficulty in gathering the necessary support to form the government. Netanyahu’s troubles worsened when the Degel HaTorah faction of United Torah Judaism decided not to recommend any candidate for prime minister. This group has four seats out of the total seven seats of United Torah Judaism.
According to the report of The Times of Israel, the ultra-Orthodox group has distanced itself from Netanyahu. The main reason for this is the difference of opinion regarding the law exempting men of the Haredi community from military service. Netanyahu’s coalition was not successful in passing this law. Angered by this, the group decided to withdraw support from him. This development has made the path of forming a government more difficult for Netanyahu.