Israeli president Isaac Herzog has given opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot the first opportunity to form a governing coalition after last month’s election, PBS NewsHour reports, citing the Associated Press. Eisenkot, a former military chief who ran as the main challenger to Benjamin Netanyahu, now has up to six weeks to assemble a majority. Most of Israel’s main parties recommended him to the president, but neither his bloc nor Netanyahu’s won a parliamentary majority on 27 October, leaving Arab-led parties as potential kingmakers. Eisenkot said it was time to establish a national emergency government. Netanyahu called for a unity administration and warned against what he called hastily swearing in a government with “terrorist supporters”, language he uses about Arab-led parties. Eisenkot has indicated a willingness to work with those parties under certain conditions, including calling Hamas a terrorist group, though some allies reject such an arrangement.
Source: PBS NewsHour