3rd UPDATE. Arab parties in Israel on Thursday supported Gadi Eiskenkot, Netanyahu’s opponent, giving him a 67-46 seat lead with the president poised to ask him to form a government, reports Joe Lauria.
Joe Lauria Consortium News
The days of Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocidal rule appear to be numbered.
Arab parties in the Israeli Knesset on Thursday agreed to back Netanyahu’s opponent, Gadi Eisenkot, giving him 67 seats in the 120-seat legislature, to form a majority.
Issac Herzog, the Israeli president, is poised to ask Eisenkot to form a government. After winning only 46 seats in the Oct. 27 election, Netanyahu began constructing a Russiagate narrative, blaming Qatar for “foreign interference” with the Arab parties, a charge dismissed by Israeli police, election officials and Qatar, but backed by the head of Shin Bet, Israel’s F.B.I., a Netanyahu ally.
Netanyahu faces possible prison time on corruption charges if he leaves office.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Herzog consulted with the parties on Thursday and floated the idea of a Netanyahu-Eisenkot unity government but it was rejected because “the Netanyahu era must be brought to an end,” in the words of Gilad Kariv, an MK from the Democrats party.
According to Haaretz, all Israeli Arab parties threw their support and 19 seats behind Eisenkot. The paper reported:
“Notably, all Arab-majority parties decided to recommend Eisenkot. The Arab-led Joint List joined Mansour Abbas’ United Arab List in backing him, saying the decision was aimed at replacing Netanyahu’s government.
Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen said the party had neither requested cabinet posts nor sought to join the coalition, but was prepared to support an Eisenkot-led government from outside.
Abbas, meanwhile, told Herzog that despite the complexity of the election results, the gaps between the parties could be bridged to form a stable government. Asked about Hamas, he said his vision was for Hamas and other armed groups to disarm as part of a two-state solution.”
The Israeli president, under the country’s Basic Law, can mandate any candidate to form a government, but with such huge support, it would be highly unusual, if not controversial, if Herzog did not ask Eisenkot to do so. Since Netanyahu would need the Arab parties to form a governing coalition and they have now rejected him, and since a unity government seems to be a dead letter, there appears to be no choice but to give Eisenkot 28 days with a possible 14 day extension to put together a government.
Yet Herzog said he would only name the candidate chosen to form a government on Sunday. He said in a statement:
“The results of the consultations may appear clear, but the authority vested in me by law is to determine who has the ability to form a government, and that is not entirely clear, given the mutual vetoes between the blocs and within the blocs themselves. I will try to determine this directly and quickly, in personal talks with some of the party leaders.”
Eisenkot criticized Netanyahu for seeking “total victory” in Gaza, deeming it “unrealistic,” and lacking an exit plan. But he is committed to dismantling Hamas’ military wing through force if necessary. He has been a harsh critic of Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, calling it “immoral,” “not Jewish,” and a “campaign of terror.” On Iran he wants to stop Iran’s nuclear program by force if necessary, but prefers sanctions and is opposed to regime change as unrealistic.
That puts him at odds with Netanyahu and his national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir and finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who would both presumably exit the cabinet, following Netanyahu out the door.
This is a breaking story. Come back for updates.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange.
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