Arab News | Israel’s president opens party talks after indecisive election

Arab News

DUBAI: Israel’s President Isaac Herzog is set to begin consultations with political parties to form a new coalition government, after official results of a general election last week showed no clear winner.

Herzog began the consultation process on Wednesday night and told party leaders that “not every commitment and promise can be fulfilled” if they wanted to avoid a new election.

Three factions aligned with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist base recommended that he be given a chance to form a coalition, while a fourth, led by a former Netanyahu ally, backed Gadi Eisenkot. Eight more parties, including the two Arab-led factions, are scheduled to meet with the president on Thursday, with Eisenkot’s Yashar party and Netanyahu’s Likud going last.

Israel’s elections last week saw no clear winner as the blocs of neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot secured a parliamentary majority.

Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party and its far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies won 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, while Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar party and three other Jewish opposition parties in his bloc won 48. Two Arab-led alliances, the United Arab List and the Joint List, together won an unprecedented 19 seats following a surge in turnout among Arab voters.

The largest Arab-Israeli bloc on Wednesday denounced “political persecution,” after one of its lawmakers was accused of accepting foreign money before last week’s elections, where the community turned out in record numbers.

Netanyahu doubled down on the accusations of foreign interference in the Oct. 27 vote.

“There are serious suspicions that foreign states have spent considerable sums to influence the outcome of the elections in Israel,” he said in a video, speaking in front of an Israeli flag and the slogan “Prime Minister’s Office.”