Israel’s President Isaac Herzog accepted the certified results of last week’s parliamentary elections and began consultations with party leaders on who to task with forming the next government. Wednesday’s moves dealt a blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to discredit the vote, in which he and his allies lost their majority in the 120-member parliament while Arab-led parties made historic gains. Face reality,” Herzog said. In the Oct. 27 vote, neither Netanyahu’s coalition nor the bloc of his main rival, opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot, won the 61 seats needed to govern. The prime minister’s coalition won 53, while Eisonkot won 48. That leaves open the possibility of an alliance between the two men or an alliance between Eisenkot and the Arab-led parties – Ra’am and the Joint List – who had secured a record 19 seats. Herzog concluded the first day of consultations with party leaders on Wednesday night, and said talks would continue on Thursday. On Wednesday, the president said he met with representatives of the Religious Zionism and Zehut factions. Netanyahu’s religious nationalist base recommended that the prime minister be given a chance to form a coalition, while a fourth, led by a former Netanyahu ally turned rival, backed 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 coming last. Ra’am, a major Arab-led party, said it would recommend it. This brought its expected support to 56 lawmakers, according to the Israeli news site Ynet, which has yet to reach a majority. The other Arab-led party, the Joint List, has not announced its position. 61. Netanyahu’s 53-seat bloc, by contrast, may not generate 53 endorsements. Degel HaTorah, which holds four of United Torah Judaism’s seven seats, said it would not recommend any of the candidates. The ultra-Orthodox faction broke with Netanyahu because his coalition failed to pass legislation exempting haredi men from military service, The Times of Israel reported. Once consultations end, Herzog will choose whichever candidate he considers. best positioned to form a coalition, almost certainly Netanyahu or Eisenkot. He has several days to announce his decision, after which the candidate will have 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension. If neither succeeds, Israel would hold another election early next year. Israel’s election said earlier on Wednesday that it had conducted a thorough investigation of all parties’ allegations of fraud and found “no evidence of irregularities that compromised the integrity of the election or affected its results.” Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara also rejected a request to question elected officials without supporting evidence. Herzog urged both sides to reach a compromise to avoid a new election, saying they must accept that “not all commitments and promises can be kept.” “Winner,” he said. He also supported the investigation into the alleged interference, but warned against smearing Palestinian-Israeli voters, saying he had “great respect” for Israel’s Palestinian minority, which makes up about 20 percent of the population. “I condemn the rudeness and racist expressions we have heard recently,” he said.
