Gadi Eisenkot has been asked today by President Isaac Herzog to try and form a new government for Israel.
The Yashar leader has an initial 28 days of negotiations to successfully form a coalition to replace the government of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The deadline may be extended by a further 14 days if needed in the hope of staving off a new election.
The offer by Herzog comes after Netanyahu lost his majority after Israel went to the polls on October 27, although the prime minister’s Likud party and its partners still form the largest bloc in the Knesset.
A spokesman for the president said: "President Herzog has invited Gadi Eisenkot to the President's Residence, where he will be tasked with forming the government tomorrow.”
Eisenkot – a former general who was IDF chief of staff from 2023 to 2024 – has said he will not go into coalition with the Arab parties who have claimed a crucial 19 seats in the Knesset.
Despite this they have still giving him their backing for the nomination as the most likely alternative to Netanyahu, with Arab voters keen to see off the previous government and in particular far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
Likud took 27 seats but their entire bloc holds only 53 seats, short of a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
Yashar have 21 seats, leading a coalition currently totalling only 48 seats.
The situation raises the possibility of a minority government led by Eisenkot in which the Arab parties are not formally part of a coalition but still provide support in the Knesset.
Alternatives are a coalition including strictly Orthodox parties, who Eisenkot and his allies have previously been unwilling to work with, or even a government of national unity also including Netanyahu.
Political observers are sceptical that any of these three routes will be successful.
In the event that the Yashar leader is unable to form a government, other candidates can then be chosen to make the attempt, with a total of 100 days allowed for the entirety of the process.
Should all attempts fail, another election will follow.
Analysts say that all three options seems unlikely to succeed.
If Eisenkot fails, another candidate can try to form a government and if that candidate fails, parliament can nominate another.
There is a deadline for the process of around 100 days. If no one succeeds, another election is held.
The 66-year-old son of Moroccan immigrant parents, Eisenkot would be the first Mizrahi prime minister in Israel’s history.
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