\n Israel's former military chief Gadi Eisenkot was set Sunday to be given the tough task of forming a government, giving him weeks to cobble together a coalition to replace Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's longest-serving prime minister.\n<\/p>\n
\n Eisenkot, 66, a political novice who has vowed to bridge Israel's deep polarisation under Netanyahu, was due to meet President Isaac Herzog who will formally give him the mandate to form a government with an initial deadline of 28 days.\n<\/p>\n
\n Eisenkot, born to a family of working-class Moroccan immigrants, would be the first Sephardic prime minister -- a descendant of Jews from the Middle East or North Africa -- in a country long dominated by an Ashkenazi elite with ties to Europe.\n<\/p>\n
\n Netanyahu, who has been prime minister on and off for nearly two decades and has led war on Gaza, Lebanon and Iran since the October 7, 2023 attacks, lost support in last month's election but no side claimed an outright majority.\n<\/p>\n
\n In consultations last week with Herzog, Eisenkot received recommendations from parties accounting for 67 lawmakers, against 46 for Netanyahu.\n<\/p>\n
\n But the vote count included Israeli Arabs, whose seat haul surged to a historic high on anger over Netanyahu's government, which includes far-right firebrands who have openly sought to marginalise the community.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Wooing the ultra-Orthodox -\n<\/p>\n
\n Avigdor Liberman, a former Netanyahu aide turned sharp critic who nonetheless shares his hawkish views, has been adamant against any alliance with Israeli Arabs, descendants of Palestinians who stayed after Israel's creation in 1948.\n<\/p>\n
\n Taking back one of his signature campaign pledges, Liberman instead voiced an openness to an alliance with ultra-Orthodox Jews, whose almost singular priority is ensuring that they remain exempt from military service.\n<\/p>\n
\n The exemption for the ultra-Orthodox -- whose two main parties had been aligned with Netanyahu but could push Eisenkot to a majority -- has been a source of growing resentment for many Israelis as reservists fight on multiple tours of duty.\n<\/p>\n
\n Liberman said Sunday he still backed conscription for all Israelis but that he had to make \"difficult decisions\" for the higher priority of ousting Netanyahu, who faces corruption charges that could land him in jail if he loses power.\n<\/p>\n
\n But he remained adamant that he would never ally with Israeli Arabs.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I will not lend a hand to the establishment of such a government, which in my view will harm security and bring Netanyahu back to power,\" Liberman wrote on X.\n<\/p>\n
\n Liberman, whose party at seven votes is the smallest within the opposition bloc, denied speculation he was trying to engineer a deadlock that could result in him becoming prime minister.\n<\/p>\n
\n Born in Moldova and with a party base originally from Russian-speaking immigrants, Liberman said that commentators' views on his motives had \"sometimes a distinctly racist tone\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Naftali Bennett, the second strongest opposition leader after Liberman, has also been outspoken against the ultra-Orthodox community's military exemption and has stayed quiet since Liberman's about-face.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'National emergency' -\n<\/p>\n
\n Eisenkot has called for a \"national emergency\" government that would remove Netanyahu, calling him \"a fundamental threat to the very existence of Israeli democracy\".\n<\/p>\n
\n He has ruled out a unity government with Netanyahu, who has repeatedly called for a broad coalition with himself at the top.\n<\/p>\n
\n Eisenkot appears to be suggesting that he is willing to start off with a minority government -- relying on outside votes from Israeli-Arab parties -- while still working to find a stable government with majority support.\n<\/p>\n
\n Assaf Shapira, a political expert at the Israel Democracy Institute, said that Eisenkot would face an especially fragile government if it only has 48 lawmakers, even if others promise to keep it in power.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"To pass laws, you need strong support from other parties,\" Shapira said, explaining that an Eisenkot minority government would be forced into extensive negotiations on every piece of legislation.\n<\/p>\n
\n Eisenkot has vowed to repair Israel's international reputation and put an end to rampant violence against Palestinians by extremist West Bank settlers supported by Netanyahu's government.\n<\/p>\n
\n He has warned Netanyahu he does not have the mandate for another attack on Iran but has also largely backed his war decisions.\n<\/p>\n
\n Commanding the military during the 2006 war with Hezbollah, Eisenkot devised the so-called \"Dahiya doctrine\" that calls for massive force against civilian infrastructure where enemies operate, a policy critics say amounts to a war crime.\n<\/p>\n
\n In Tel Aviv, Neri Bar-On, who works in educational technology, said he expected Eisenkot to succeed in forming a government.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"But the problems run deeper,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The country is facing a massive internal conflict; even if he manages to form a government, it won't solve the underlying issues.\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel's former military chief Gadi Eisenkot was set Sunday to be given the tough task of forming a government, giving him weeks to cobble together a coalition to replace Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's longest-serving prime minister. Eisenkot, 66, a political novice who has vowed to bridge Israel's deep polarisation under Netanyahu, was due to meet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-168202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n