Eisenkot Recommendations: Opposition Backs Him for Mandate

Gadi Eisenkot is set to collect more party recommendations than Benjamin Netanyahu at President Isaac Herzog's consultations with the Knesset factions, the step the law requires before the president decides who receives the mandate to form the next government.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Netanyahu's bloc won 53 seats in the next Knesset and the opposition bloc won 48, leaving neither side with a 61-seat majority. The report said the 19 recommendations from the Arab parties, added to the opposition's 48, would give Eisenkot the backing of 67 Knesset members. It said that total could lead Herzog to grant the mandate to Eisenkot rather than Netanyahu.

Opposition party leaders Naftali Bennett of B'Yachad, Avigdor Liberman of Yisrael Beytenu and Yair Golan of the Democrats agreed to recommend that Eisenkot receive the first mandate. Eisenkot called Tuesday's meeting of opposition leaders "good and important."

"We are coordinated and prepared for the coming days," Eisenkot said.

In a video statement on Tuesday, before the consultations opened, Eisenkot pledged that the opposition would act fast once the new Knesset is sworn in next week. He named two goals: a "national emergency government" and a set of parliamentary moves.

"We will act quickly. We have two goals ahead of us: establishing a national emergency government and carrying out parliamentary measures – electing a new Knesset speaker, passing important legislation, and repealing laws that threaten democracy," Eisenkot said. The current speaker is Amir Ohana, a Likud member.

Eisenkot also went after the prime minister directly. He called Netanyahu "a caretaker prime minister with the support of only 46 members of Knesset."

"The Likud and Netanyahu know that we are determined. That is why they continue to cast doubt on and undermine the official election results. This is their last refuge," he said. "The coming days will be filled with political spin and ugly, false briefings. Anyone who thinks they can intimidate the change movement has misjudged our determination."

Herzog began meeting the factions on Wednesday evening. Earlier that day in Jerusalem, Justice Noam Sohlberg handed him the official results. Sohlberg chairs the Central Elections Committee, the body that counted, verified and approved the vote.