For five years, Isaac Herzog has tried to avoid controversy and heal rifts in his largely ceremonial role as the president of Israel. Now, following last week’s inconclusive election, he must make a decision that is likely to roil one half or the other of a fractured country.
One of the president’s few powers is the ability to grant a party leader the mandate to try and form a government. Typically, this is assigned to the head of the party that has won the most votes or appears to have the best chance of building a coalition that would command a majority in Parliament. But the law is vague, giving the president a lot of leeway over the process.
Mr. Herzog, the scion of an illustrious Israeli family who is expected to remain involved in the backroom talks throughout the process, will have to draw on his skills as a savvy negotiator and mediator — expertise he honed over his years as a lawyer and politician, including as leader of the center-left Labor party.
After working in law, he served as a government secretary under Prime Minister Ehud Barak and as a minister in multiple governments. He ran a credible but unsuccessful campaign to replace Mr. Netanyahu in the 2015 election and went on to lead the Jewish Agency, an organization that serves as a bridge between Israel and the Jewish diaspora.
A longtime advocate of national unity, he will most likely work to enable as broad a government as possible, analysts say, to try to get Israel out of what many call the political “plonter,” a Yiddish word to describe a mess, like an intricate knot that is hard to unravel.
“This is his big moment,” Nachman Shai, a former Labor minister and lawmaker, said of Mr. Herzog. “He is a polished, creative politician,” he added. “Not everyone will like his ideas, but I’m sure he will be looking for solutions to build a coalition that are out of the box.”
Starting on Wednesday, representatives of the 11 political parties elected to the new Parliament will troop through the presidential residence in a leafy neighborhood of Jerusalem to consult with Mr. Herzog and to recommend their candidate for the premiership.
Most party leaders are expected to back either Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the longtime right-wing leader, or his main center-right rival, Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief.
Neither man’s political bloc won an outright majority of 61 seats in the 120-member Parliament. Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud took 27 seats, making it the largest party, but his hard-right, religious coalition’s tally fell to 53 seats.
Mr. Eisenkot’s main bloc of Jewish opposition parties secured 48 seats. If the Arab-led parties that oppose Mr. Netanyahu and won 19 seats also recommend him to Mr. Herzog, the president may well grant him the first opportunity to try and form a government. Some of Mr. Eisenkot’s Jewish allies, however, have balked at the idea of a government relying on Arab support.
Mr. Herzog cannot take political sides and must remain a unifying figurehead above the fray. He has called for a “stable” government without specifying how it should be formed and has called on the parties’ representatives to consult with him with open minds and hearts.
The law allows the assigned candidate 28 days to try to form a government, though the president can extend that period by up to 14 days. If the first attempt fails, the president can give another candidate a chance or refer the efforts to Parliament. If no party leader is able to form a governing coalition, new elections would be held — an outcome that Mr. Herzog has urged them to avoid.
The kind of broad unity government that Mr. Herzog may envisage would likely require some kind of power-sharing deal between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Eisenkot — a prospect that faces huge obstacles.
Mr. Eisenkot says that Mr. Netanyahu must be replaced and has ruled out serving under him. Mr. Netanyahu, who has been on trial for six years following corruption charges in three separate but interlocking cases, cannot serve in a government as a minister. According to Israeli law, only a prime minister can serve under indictment.
Mr. Herzog has a potentially valuable, if highly contentious, card to play to try to bring Mr. Netanyahu on side with a unifying coalition, analysts say.
The president has the authority to issue pardons, generally for people already convicted of crimes. Mr. Netanyahu, who has denied any wrongdoing, submitted a pre-emptive request for a pardon during his trial a year ago.
Mr. Herzog has instead offered to try to initiate a mediation process to reach a plea deal and invited the attorney general and Mr. Netanyahu’s lawyer for talks. Mr. Netanyahu’s team never replied.
“A pardon can be part of a package deal,” Mr. Shai said. “It could be a way for Mr. Herzog to come to a compromise with him. Everyone is tired of the trial by now, and nobody knows how it will end.”
“Herzog is energetic, super active, primed for action,” he said. “People forget he is one of the most experienced people around,” he added.
Mitchell Barak, an analyst who worked as an aide to Mr. Netanyahu and later for President Shimon Peres, a former Labor leader, said Mr. Herzog’s history with the prime minister and the “ace” of a potential pardon could be viewed either as a conflict of interest in negotiations or as an advantage.
“He is holding a get-out-of-jail-free card for Netanyahu,” Mr. Barak added. “Or you could call it leverage,” he added.
The president’s office dismissed suggestions of a conflict of interest, saying the pardon and the efforts toward forming a government were two different tracks based on separate laws.
As president, Mr. Herzog oversaw negotiations that tried, and failed, to reach a compromise over the Netanyahu government’s plans for a judicial overhaul that caused turmoil in Israel. Mr. Shai said many Israelis had expected Mr. Herzog to take a stronger stand against the government’s moves and that the episode harmed his public standing.
Mr. Herzog also appears to have tried to build confidence on both sides of Israel’s political divide.
He has spoken out against what he called “a terrible process of brutalization” creeping into Israeli society, citing a surge of “mob” violence by Jews against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the abuse of detainees in Israeli custody.
Mr. Herzog also recently expunged the criminal record of Elor Azaria, a former soldier who fatally shot a severely wounded Palestinian man at close range while he lay on the ground a decade ago. The man had earlier been seriously injured after he attacked an Israeli checkpoint. The president’s move baffled and angered many liberal Israelis but fulfilled a long-sought demand from Israel’s right.
Mr. Herzog also has his family legacy and reputation to consider. His grandfather, Rabbi Dr. Yitzhak Isaac Halevi Herzog, was the first Chief Rabbi of the state of Israel. His father, Chaim Herzog, served as the sixth president of Israel.
After the 1984 election, when Mr. Peres and Yitzhak Shamir, then the Likud leader, were in a deadlock, Mr. Herzog’s father played an active role in promoting the formation of a unity government, resolving the political impasse.
Mr. Herzog “is part of the country’s old guard and political elite with a storied tradition of excellence,” said Mr. Barak. “There’s a certain responsibility that comes with that.”
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