Benjamin Netanyahu's position in the post-election battle to stay on as Israel's prime minister weakened on Thursday after an ultra-Orthodox Jewish party withheld support for any nominee and two Arab-led parties endorsed his main opponent.
Israel's president Isaac Herzog is due to meet Netanyahu and his chief political rival Gadi Eisenkot to decide which of the two men to pick to form a government, after holding talks with smaller parties. He has until November 11 to decide. Israel's October 27 election ended in deadlock with neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot, a former military chief, securing a clear path to a majority in parliament. This has set up a tough task for President Isaac Herzog, whose mostly ceremonial role comes with the post-election responsibility of picking a candidate he believes has the best chance to break the deadlock in a deeply divided country.
Netanyahu remains prime minister in a caretaker government until a new coalition is formed, or through another election, which must be held if no candidate succeeds. Though Netanyahu outperformed expectations in the vote and his own Likud Party won the most seats, his nationalist-religious coalition lost its governing majority. In a setback for the prime minister on Thursday, United Torah Judaism, one of two major parties representing ultra-Orthodox Jewish voters and a longstanding Netanyahu coalition ally, declined to recommend any candidate to form a government.
And while Eisenkot, like Netanyahu, has so far ruled out forming a government with Israel's two Arab-led parties, both factions endorsed Eisenkot on Thursday, giving him backing from a comfortable majority of lawmakers. "Remember the issues tearing us apart from within" Herzog will meet separately with Netanyahu's and Eisenkot's factions at his residence in Jerusalem on Thursday night, wrapping up party meetings he started on Wednesday after the announcement of official election results. Herzog has called on parties to do their utmost to avert another round of elections. "Any reasonable person need only look at the security and diplomatic challenges before us, at the changing region around us, and remember the issues tearing us apart from within, to understand that an immense responsibility rests upon us," Herzog said.
