JERUSALEM — Israeli President Isaac Herzog has signed off on the official count from the Oct. 27 parliamentary election and opened consultations with party leaders over who should get the first chance to build a governing coalition.
The step undercuts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign to cast doubt on the vote. Neither his bloc nor that of opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot reached the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-member Knesset. Netanyahu’s coalition finished with 53 seats and Eisenkot’s camp with 48, while the Arab-led parties Ra’am and the Joint List together won a record 19.
Israel’s elections commission said Wednesday that it had examined fraud claims from all parties and found no irregularities that affected the outcome. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara separately refused to let investigators question sitting lawmakers absent evidence to justify it.
Herzog met Wednesday with Shas, Yisrael Beytenu and a joint Religious Zionism-Zehut delegation, and the meetings resumed Thursday at the President’s Residence. Ra’am, led by Mansour Abbas, recommended Eisenkot on Thursday and said it backs the full disarmament of Hamas. Yair Golan’s party, The Democrats, also backed Eisenkot, while Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit recommended Netanyahu.
United Torah Judaism declined to back either man. Its Degel HaTorah faction split from Netanyahu over his coalition’s failure to pass a law exempting ultra-Orthodox men from military service.
Ra’am’s support lifted Eisenkot’s expected backing to about 56 lawmakers, still short of a majority. The Joint List, with 11 seats, has not said what it will do. Likud and Eisenkot’s Yashar party were set to be the last to meet the president.
After the last meeting, Herzog will take several days to pick a nominee. That person will have four weeks to assemble a majority and can ask for two more. If no one succeeds, Israel would return to the polls early next year. Herzog has pressed both sides to give ground so voters are not sent back to the ballot box.
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