How Israel's President will try to break the country's elections deadlock
The National · Thomas Helm ·
Isaac Herzog says he will decide which politician to give the first chance to form a government on Sunday
When Shabbat ends on Saturday evening, Israel will brace itself for the next step in the fraught path to forming its next government after last month’s elections were inconclusive.
The next step gives Israeli President Isaac Herzog an unusually significant and potentially very controversial task: to choose which politician has the first opportunity to form a government. Expectations are that it will go to Gadi Eisenkot, who, after a week of consultations hosted by the President with factions in the new Knesset, received the most recommendations, at 67 of 120 Knesset members.
The choice of Mr Eisenkot is not certain. Mr Herzog has discretion, a variable that makes it probably the most important decision an Israeli president will face – far more dramatic than the usual welcoming of foreign dignitaries to a sprawling Jerusalem residence and attendance at ceremonies.
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