Israeli opposition leaders agreed Tuesday to recommend Yashar party head Gadi Eisenkot to President Isaac Herzog to form the next government, vowing to replace Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration with a “national emergency government.”
The agreement was reached following a joint meeting of opposition party leaders in Herzliya in west-central Israel ahead of the start of consultations at Herzog’s residence on Wednesday, The Jerusalem Post reported.
The statement said all participating parties will recommend Eisenkot to Herzog to form the next government, and their negotiating teams will immediately begin drafting policy guidelines and coalition agreements needed to establish the new cabinet.
“The party leaders are coordinated and will act immediately to replace the ‘Oct. 7 government’ with a national emergency government,” the parties said, adding that they would seek to realize a “clear parliamentary majority” in the Knesset.
The leaders also discussed steps to be taken during the first days of the new Knesset aimed at forming a government and avoiding another election, the statement said.
They announced that they had “agreed on the need to form a Zionist government at the earliest opportunity, based on the four principles put forward by Gadi Eisenkot.”
The leaders affirmed their “full commitment to respecting the decision of Israeli voters, who voted clearly and decisively for change and against the continuation of the current government.” They also coordinated the parliamentary plans and steps needed to translate that majority into immediate action, starting in the new Knesset’s first days.
The Knesset is scheduled to hold its opening session on Nov. 10, when a new speaker is expected to be elected to replace incumbent Amir Ohana of the Likud party.
The leaders discussed the “dangerous and irresponsible” campaign being waged by Likud and Netanyahu to delegitimize the election results and the Central Elections Committee, affirming their unwavering commitment to defending both, the statement said.
They agreed that “all their parties will recommend to the president that Eisenkot be tasked with forming the government, with the aim of completing the process as quickly as possible and sparing Israel another election.”
They also agreed that “their parties’ negotiating teams will immediately begin drafting the policy guidelines and coalition agreements needed to form the Israeli government.”
They said they would “maintain close and continuous coordination over the coming days until the new government is sworn in.”
“We have no time. We must move extremely quickly. We will therefore work as soon as possible to secure the Knesset speakership, obtain the mandate to form the government and move forward at full speed to establish a Zionist government of rectification,” Israeli public broadcaster KAN quoted Bennett as saying at the end of the meeting.
The meeting comes a day before the Israeli Central Elections Committee is expected to announce the official and final election results on Wednesday, despite Netanyahu and the far right questioning the outcome.
Tuesday’s meeting was the first joint meeting of the opposition leaders since the Oct. 27 elections. It brought together Eisenkot, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett of the Together party, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman, Yair Golan of the Democrats and opposition leader Yair Lapid, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The elections left Netanyahu’s bloc with 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, while the opposition secured 48 seats and Arab parties won 19.
The opposition remains short of the 61 seats needed for a parliamentary majority on its own, making support from Arab lawmakers potentially decisive in efforts to form a government.