{"id":678074,"date":"2026-11-07T22:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T22:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/678074\/"},"modified":"2026-11-07T22:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T22:08:08","slug":"israeli-president-picks-gadi-eisenkot-netanyahu-rival-to-form-government-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/678074\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli president picks Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu rival, to form government \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel<\/a>\u2019s president has \u2060chosen Gadi Eisenkot, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu<\/a>\u2019s \u2060strongest rival, to \u2060try to \u200bform a new government, following a deadlocked election that left neither man \u2060with a clear path to power.<\/p>\n

Isaac Herzog\u2019s office said he had informed Eisenkot, the leader of the Yashar party, on Saturday night \u201cof his intention to task him with forming a government\u201d.<\/p>\n

It added that the formal appointment would take place in an official ceremony on Sunday at the president\u2019s residence in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu \u200cis fighting to hold on to office \u200cafter his religious-nationalist coalition lost its majority in an election on 27 October but still emerged as the largest bloc \u200cin parliament.<\/p>\n

Should Eisenkot succeed in forming a coalition, he would take over as prime minister from Netanyahu, Israel\u2019s longest-serving premier.<\/p>\n

Eisenkot\u2019s wide-ranging opposition bloc won 48 of the Israeli parliament\u2019s 120 seats in October\u2019s elections, while Netanyahu\u2019s camp secured 53, leaving neither with a majority.<\/p>\n

During party consultations with Herzog, 66-year-old Eisenkot received the endorsements of both Arab-majority lists, who could now play kingmakers after making unprecedented gains in the vote.<\/p>\n

But it remains unclear if Eisenkot\u2019s bloc would accept support from the Arab lists in forming a government.<\/p>\n

Eisenkot, the military chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, has set out to unite Israelis after Netanyahu\u2019s divisive tenure, under which the country moved sharply to the right.<\/p>\n

He has vowed to crack down on extremist West Bank settlers who have attacked Palestinians with impunity, decrying recent incidents as \u201cJewish terror\u201d abetted by Netanyahu\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

But the military man is no peacenik. He opposes the creation of a Palestinian state<\/a> and vowed to end Hamas\u2019s rule in Gaza and destroy the Islamist movement\u2019s military wing.<\/p>\n

Commanding the military during the 2006 war with Hizbullah, Eisenkot devised the so-called \u201cDahiya doctrine\u201d. The idea, named after a Beirut suburb heavily damaged in that war, involves Israel vowing to use massive force against civilian infrastructure in areas controlled by Lebanese militant movement Hizbullah. – Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s president has \u2060chosen Gadi Eisenkot, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu\u2019s \u2060strongest rival, to \u2060try to \u200bform a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10748,42,3410,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-678074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-binyamin-netanyahu","tag-headlines","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}