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Gadi Eisenkot has warned that not all election promises could be kept and that coalition-building would require “creative and unconventional” political steps as he received the mandate to form a government from President Isaac Herzog on Sunday.
“No one will be able to fulfil all the promises they made, and all of us will need to compromise,” the Yashar leader and former IDF chief of staff said. “That is also leadership – to know when to decide and set priorities.”
Eisenkot stressed that Israel could not afford to go to the polls again and vowed to establish a national emergency government.
“With the mandate entrusted to me here today, I will lead the establishment of a national emergency government,” he said.
“This will require creative and unconventional political acts. Israel does not have the privilege of wasting time or repeating endless rounds of elections.”
His bid to replace Benjamin Netanyahu faces formidable obstacles, however.
Eisenkot received the backing of 67 of the Knesset’s 120 members, but 19 belong to Arab parties that his prospective coalition partners refuse to rely on, citing fundamental disagreements over Israel’s Jewish identity and the parties’ refusal to recognise Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
Possible alternatives include a minority government, a coalition with strictly Orthodox parties traditionally allied with Netanyahu, or a broader unity government.
Eisenkot appealed directly to members of Netanyahu’s Likud and the far-right Religious Zionism party to support a government under his leadership, but conspicuously avoided mentioning Netanyahu himself.
“If members of Likud and Religious Zionism truly believe that this is a time for unity, as they declared before the president, I cannot imagine any reason why they would not come forward and support a government under my leadership and the principles I have laid out,” he said.
Herzog urged him to form the “most stable government possible” to confront Israel’s “immense challenges”.
Eisenkot has 28 days to assemble a coalition, with a possible 14-day extension. Failure could ultimately trigger another election.
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