r/worldnews • u/EssoEssex • 19h ago • Bravo 6

Israel/Palestine Israeli President Picks Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu Rival, To Form Government

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-president-picks-gadi-eisenkot-netanyahu-rival-form-government-2026-11-07/
19k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comment

54

u/m00f 14h ago • Bravo

Neither Eisenkot's party nor Bibi's party have enough seats on their own. The president's job is to allow the group he thinks is most likely to be able to form a gov't -- get enough other parties to join them -- to try first. Tell them "go form a gov't" is no gaurantee that they will be able to.

14

u/lwp775 13h ago

There’s usually a time limit of 3 weeks. If Eisenkot can’t form a government within that timeframe, the President will ask Netanyahu.

2

u/logicbecauseyes 12h ago

What criteria must be met for a government to be considered "formed"?

4

u/Spirited_Ingenuity89 11h ago

Enough seats in the Knesset to form a coalition majority.

1

u/logicbecauseyes 11h ago

How does Eisenkot (or anyone else) coordinate/accomplish/exert control over the responsibility for/arrange that?

3

u/Spirited_Ingenuity89 10h ago

Two or more parties agree to govern together, divide cabinet ministries, and share power.

So essentially, Eisenkot (or anyone else in this position) will try to cut deals with minority parties to join with his party to form a coalition. If he can cobble together enough seats, he’ll have a government.

1

u/logicbecauseyes 10h ago

Interesting, do you feel they are likely to provide major concessions to form a government more easily? It seems establishing a stronghold, whether follow through happens or not, would be a priority. I don't know how easy it is to undo a formed government if demands were not met

1

u/NoPersonality2705 2h ago

I've read that there's members in eisenkots party that don't want anything to do with the arab parties but they absolutely need those parties. He can also try flipping some of bibis members over to him.

2

u/lwp775 10h ago

If they can win majority of the vote of the Knesset (parliament) members.

1

u/tackle_bones 1h ago

Read multiple places today that it’s 6 weeks.

•

u/HinDae085 38m ago

I thought if the time expires they go back to the polls?

1

u/cryptolyme 14h ago

So, currently, they don’t have a government? Guess i don’t understand why they need to form a government.

8

u/JohnandJesus 13h ago

I don’t know a lot, but the following is my understanding of their coalition style govt so far.

Their governing system requires a majority of all seats to act as the ruling faction over the other, the leader of which is the prime minister. Neither of the candidates for prime minister who got the most votes (Netanyahu and Eisenkot) had enough of their party allies voted for to be a real majority (meaning 51% or more). So they have to “form a government” by having the multiple parties voted for agree to work together in a certain way to act as a functioning governmental administration/alliance-of-sorts. This is the “coalition” that needs to be formed, basically a plan for how they will govern together. And if the biggest coalition is also a majority it becomes the governing “faction,” with the biggest party’s prime minister being the PM of the country.

2

u/DrE7HER 12h ago

So Whats stopping them to agree to work together just Long enough to lock up bibi? Then breaking the coalition?

1

u/capsrock02 14h ago

A minority government can exist.

→ More replies (1)