Arab Raam party recommends Gadi Eisenkot as candidate to form Israel's government

Raam's recommendation and the balance in the Knesset

The Arab Raam party has recommended that Israeli opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot be tasked with forming the next government, Israeli media report; the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth wrote about this. On November 5, party representatives, including chairman Mansour Abbas, Yoav Seglovitz and Iman Khatib Yassin, conveyed this recommendation to President Isaac Herzog. In last week's election, Raam won eight seats in the 120-member Knesset.

The balance of forces and next steps

After Raam's recommendation, the number of Knesset members who have officially backed Eisenkot reached 56: 48 from Jewish opposition parties and eight from Raam. The Arab Joint List has not yet announced its position. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it is expected, is left with 46 recommendations after his ally — the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, which holds seven mandates — refused to support him and said it would not recommend any candidate. To secure a parliamentary majority, a candidate needs the support of at least 61 of the 120 Knesset members. Herzog is expected to task one of the Knesset members with forming a government in the coming days; the appointee will have 28 days to do so, with a possible extension of another 14 days. Thus, even with Eisenkot's current lead in recommendations (56 versus 46), no candidate has yet reached the 61-vote threshold, and the Joint List's position remains the key uncertainty.