Joint List says it will back Eisenkot to form Israel’s next government

Arab-led parties won a record 19 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament in last week’s general election.The Joint List alliance of Arab-led parties says it will back Israeli opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot to form a new government after last week’s election.“The Joint List announced today, Thursday, that it will inform the President of the State, Isaac Herzog, this evening of its decision to recommend that Gadi Eisenkot be tasked with forming the government,” the alliance said in a statement.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Israel’s election commission rejects Likud’s fraud claims, confirms resultslist 2 of 3Palestinian citizens of Israel face intimidation after election successlist 3 of 3Israel’s Herzog accepts vote results, opens talks on forming a governmentend of listArab-led parties won a record 19 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament in last week’s general election, a result that could give them significant influence over the formation of the next government.Once the Joint List’s 11 lawmakers formally submit their recommendation, Eisenkot is expected to have the backing of 67 lawmakers, exceeding the 61-seat majority threshold in the Knesset.Earlier, Ra’am, an Arab-led party with eight seats, said it would also recommend Eisenkot.Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc with 53 seats may not yield 53 endorsements, as Degel HaTorah, which holds four of United Torah Judaism’s seven seats, said it would recommend neither candidate.The ultra-Orthodox faction broke with Netanyahu over his coalition’s failure to pass legislation exempting Haredi men from military service, The Times of Israel reported.Netanyahu has also claimed repeatedly and without evidence that Arab parties committed fraud during the elections with foreign backing.The prime minister and his Likud party have cited a handful of cases, like the arrests of three political activists who allegedly bribed voters before polls opened. They are suspected of connections with the Ra’am party, although the party denies any involvement.Netanyahu and Likud also suggested that the opposition bloc joining with Arab parties would be treasonous. In a statement after the vote, Likud warned that Zionist parties cooperating with the Arab bloc would be “dangerous to Israel”.Israel’s Central Elections Committee certified the results of the election on Wednesday after finding no evidence of fraud.Israel’s President Isaac Herzog has also accepted the results and begun consultations with party leaders on whom to task with forming the next government.He also backed investigating the suspected interference but warned against smearing Palestinian-Israeli voters, saying he had “great respect” for Israel’s Palestinian minority, which makes up about 20 percent of the population.“I condemn the coarseness and racist expressions that we have heard recently,” he said.On Wednesday, the president said he had met representatives of the Religious Zionism and Zehut, Shas, and Yisrael Beytenu factions.He “received their recommendations regarding the identity of the Knesset member upon whom the task of forming the government should be assigned”, Herzog said on X.Herzog added that talks would also continue on Thursday.Once the consultations end, Herzog will choose the candidate he considers best placed to assemble a coalition, almost certainly Netanyahu or Eisenkot. He has several days to announce his decision, after which the nominee will have 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension.If neither man succeeds, Israel would hold another election early next year.