Follow-Up: Eisenkot Says Government-Formation Talks Have Made 'Significant Progress,' With 74 Lawmakers Against Netanyahu Staying On
Jerusalem — Israeli opposition leader and former military chief Gadi Eisenkot said in a statement issued ahead of the Sabbath on November 6 that consultations to form a new government had achieved 'significant progress' and even breakthroughs, and that he hoped to formally receive the president's mandate to form a government early next week.
Eisenkot said Israel faced a 'true, tangible, and dangerous state of emergency,' and that 74 of the Knesset's 120 lawmakers opposed Benjamin Netanyahu continuing in office — 67 of them had already recommended Eisenkot to President Isaac Herzog, while the seven-seat ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party had also refused to recommend Netanyahu. He said his camp had logged dozens of hours of negotiations aimed at a 'national emergency government' built around four 'Zionist parties of change and repair,' open to any faction willing to sign on to a four-point foundational platform.
The biggest obstacle remains the coalition's composition: the 67 recommendations include 19 seats held by the Arab-led Ra'am and Joint List parties, but three Jewish-led parties have ruled out sitting in a government with Arab parties. Eisenkot has made recognising Hamas as a terrorist organisation one of his conditions for joining the government, which has also complicated coordination with the Arab parties.
Herzog has postponed his announcement of the mandate to Sunday. Whoever receives it will have 28 days to assemble a governing coalition; the new Knesset is scheduled to be sworn in on November 10. (Source: The Times of Israel)
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Source: The Times of Israel
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：以色列 Yashar 党领导人 Gadi Eisenkot（2026年资料照片）。照片：Yahav Trudler（经 Eisenkot 发言人办公室），CC BY-SA，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Gadi Eisenkot, leader of Israel's Yashar party (file photo, 2026). Photo: Yahav Trudler, via the Eisenkot spokesperson's office, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons.
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