Israel’s president on Saturday selected Gadi Eisenkot, the leading rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to try to form a new government, handing him the daunting task of forging a parliamentary coalition after an indecisive national election last month.
Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, said he had held “in-depth talks” with both Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Eisenkot before making his decision. He ultimately tapped Mr. Eisenkot, a center-right former Israeli military chief, after more members of Parliament supported Mr. Eisenkot than Mr. Netanyahu during consultations over the past week.
The announcement gives Mr. Eisenkot a long-awaited chance to fulfill his pledge to unseat Mr. Netanyahu and steer Israel in a new direction, but he will have to navigate significant obstacles to form a government. He has up to six weeks to build a coalition before the president passes the opportunity to another candidate, most likely Mr. Netanyahu.
The election on Oct. 27 left all sides short of an outright 61-seat majority in Parliament. Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition won 53 seats; Mr. Eisenkot and his Zionist allies secured 48; and two Arab parties took a record 19.
Now that Mr. Eisenkot has received a mandate to form a government, he faces a series of difficult choices. He could join forces with the two Arab-led parties, but some of the right-wing Jewish parties in his bloc have said they would not enter a government that relied on their support. Mr. Eisenkot has also stipulated conditions that the Arab parties have yet to meet, such as publicly labeling Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Mr. Eisenkot said on Friday that he would work to establish a “national emergency government” to eject Mr. Netanyahu as soon as possible. That would probably mean forming a minority government, with support from some parties that would not formally join his coalition. Mr. Eisenkot has said other parties could join “at a later stage.”
“We must urgently establish stable, responsible leadership, prevent another round of elections and put an end to outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s determination to cling to office,” Mr. Eisenkot said.
Mr. Netanyahu has been prime minister for almost 19 years in all, through multiple periods dating back to 1996.
On Saturday, Mr. Netanyahu attacked a prospective government led by Mr. Eisenkot that would rely on the Arab parties. He claimed it would unleash “fires and flames we will see in the streets” and compared it to “national suicide.”
“This is a matter of our very existence. Israel simply will not survive under such a government,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
If Mr. Eisenkot fails to form a government, Mr. Herzog can select another candidate, who will then have four weeks to do so. If neither succeeds, Parliament could ask Mr. Herzog to grant the mandate to a third lawmaker, who would have 14 days to make a last-ditch attempt.
If the candidates all fail, Parliament would be dissolved, and new elections would be held. Mr. Herzog and Mr. Eisenkot have said they hope to stave off that prospect.
Mr. Netanyahu will serve as the caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed. Political analysts say remaining in power by forcing a new round of elections would be a victory for him, even if he is not able to form a government this time around.
Since the vote, Mr. Netanyahu and his hard-line allies have repeatedly attacked the results, saying that the election was “stolen by Arab parties.” Israeli election officials have insisted there is no proof of widespread fraud.
The selection of Mr. Eisenkot had been expected for several days, after Mr. Herzog consulted with leaders and officials of the 11 parties that won seats in Parliament. Mr. Eisenkot received a clear majority, with most parties backing him; he got the support of 67 lawmakers, compared with 46 for Mr. Netanyahu.
Mr. Eisenkot, a soft-spoken former general, campaigned on the promise of keeping Israel secure while leading it away from policies that have brought it to the brink of becoming a pariah state. He has also paid a painful personal price to which many Israelis can relate: His son and two nephews died in the war in Gaza that followed the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
Many in Mr. Eisenkot’s camp saw the vote as a referendum on the prime minister’s failure to prevent the Oct. 7 attacks and on Israel’s growing international isolation over the subsequent war in Gaza.
Still, Mr. Netanyahu cannot be counted out. A consummate political survivor and Israel’s longest-serving leader, he overcame widespread criticism in Israel and fury abroad to outperform many of the polls. His Likud party secured 27 seats, down from 30 in the last election in 2022 but still more than any other political party.
Mr. Eisenkot has articulated four principles he said parties must meet to be included in a governing coalition: recognizing Israel as a Jewish and democratic state; supporting the Israeli Declaration of Independence; backing universal national service; and labeling Hamas as a terrorist organization that must be dismantled.
Mr. Eisenkot may need to rely on Raam and the Joint List alliance, two Arab-led parties, to support a minority government. Raam has accepted most of the conditions and has condemned all terrorist acts but has not called Hamas a terrorist group. The Joint List includes leftists and Palestinian nationalists who reject Israel’s founding ideal of a “Jewish democracy.”
Mr. Eisenkot could also try to woo some of Mr. Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies. But many of the former general’s supporters could view that as a betrayal if he had to compromise on a push to force ultra-Orthodox religious students to serve in the military, given that he campaigned on ending their longstanding exemption from conscription.
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