Israel's Arab parties back Netanyahu's rival Eisenkot to form the next government

Israel's two Arab-led parties, the Joint List and Raam, said on November 5, 2026 that they will recommend opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot to President Isaac Herzog as the lawmaker to form the next government, according to Al Jazeera and France 24. The parties won a record 19 of the Knesset's 120 seats in the October 27 election; Netanyahu's bloc has 53 seats and Eisenkot's bloc 48. Part of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism alliance, which backed Netanyahu after the last five elections, said it would recommend no one, over his coalition's failure to pass a law exempting religious students from military service. With the Arab parties, Eisenkot is expected to have 67 recommendations, Al Jazeera reports. Netanyahu has claimed, without evidence, that foreign money and fraud affected the vote; the Central Elections Committee certified the results on November 4. Herzog chooses the nominee, who gets 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension.

Sources:
• Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/5/joint-list-says-it-will-back-eisenkot-to-form-israels-next-government
• France 24: https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20261105-israel-main-arab-list-backs-eisenkot-to-form-government-after-election
• The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/nov/05/herzog-netanyahu-eisenkot-israel-election-decision

Images:
• Avi Ohayon / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Clema12 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Ronen Horesh / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

#shorts #news #israel