Israel's parliament sworn in as Eisenkot tries to forge a government

Israel’s parliament was sworn in on Tuesday without a new government, after a deadlocked general election stripped Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of his parliamentary majority but left his main rivals with no clear path to power.

Lawmakers elected in the Oct 27 vote took their oaths of office as Gadi Eisenkot, a former general, sought to forge a coalition after Israel’s president tasked him on Sunday with forming a government.

Eisenkot and his allies also lack a majority and he has yet to strike deals with parties that could bring him to power. If both Eisenkot and Netanyahu fail to form coalitions, another election could follow.

Presiding over the swearing-in ceremony, President Isaac Herzog told lawmakers: “You must do everything to avoid a repeat election.

“Reach out a hand for compromise, even between rivals… Look upon one another with generosity. There is much work to be done here, and it requires the ability and experience found in every part of this House.”

Netanyahu remains caretaker prime minister until a new candidate manages to form a coalition.

His right-wing Likud party’s alliance with far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties outperformed election expectations but still lost its majority, now holding 53 of the Knesset’s 120 seats.

Eisenkot’s centre-right Yashar party and patchwork partner factions hold just 48 seats. But they have potential allies in Israel’s Arab-led parties, which hold 19 seats and are aligned with Eisenkot in their vehement opposition to Netanyahu.

This means that the newly sworn-in parliament could still deliver on some of Eisenkot’s campaign promises. It also could allow Eisenkot to replace the current Knesset speaker, a Likud member.

Speaking after parliament was sworn in, Netanyahu called for a unity government, claiming that Iran was seeking to revive its nuclear programme and that Israel could come under growing international pressure to accept a nuclear-armed Iran.

“Only such a (unity) government will be capable of confronting challenges of this magnitude,” he said.

Proposal for Oct 7 probe

Eisenkot’s party moved to immediately propose setting up a commission to investigate failures that allowed Hamas’s Oct 7, 2023 attack — a move backed by the Arab parties but long resisted by Netanyahu.

Yashar also said it was proposing a mass repeal of Netanyahu’s controversial overhaul of the judiciary, which had triggered some of Israel’s largest ever protests.

Herzog told Knesset members that parliament was “duty-bound to leave no stone unturned” in investigating and understanding the “catastrophe” of Oct 7, while he said Israel continues to face threats from Iran and its allies.

During the swearing-in, far-right Israeli leader Itamar Ben Gvir heckled a prominent leader of the Arab-Israeli community.

“Who is he pledging allegiance to, Hamas?” Ben Gvir shouted at Yousef Jabareen, leader of the largest Arab-majority Joint List.

“Anyone who is not loyal shall not be in the Israeli Knesset!” he wrote on X shortly after.

Path to forming govt

Herzog on Sunday gave Eisenkot the initial mandate to form a government, starting the clock for him to cobble together a coalition within 28 days, with a possible 14-day extension.

Ahead of the parliament opening, Eisenkot’s party announced progress in naming people to seek key positions.

The opposition will put forward Matan Kahana — like Eisenkot, a former senior military figure — as speaker of the parliament, Eisenkot’s Yashar party said.

Avigdor Lieberman, a right-wing opposition leader who has played a key role in deciding who can enter the government, will be nominated as chair of the foreign affairs and defence committee.

The opposition’s choice for speaker would need to secure a larger number of votes than anyone backed by Netanyahu’s bloc, which has been trying to push back a vote on the speaker.

The newly formed government would need 61 votes to be approved to take office.

Eisenkot could secure the threshold with support from Arab-Israeli lawmakers, who secured a record number of seats on the back of anger in the minority community over Netanyahu’s hard-right government.

But Lieberman had been clear he would not allow Eisenkot to rely on Arab-Israelis to come to power. He has instead proposed an alliance with ultra-Orthodox Jews, despite his years of bitter denunciations of the community for its singular priority on maintaining an exemption from mandatory military service.

Arab-Israelis are also likely to object if Eisenkot carries out another major offensive in Gaza.

Eisenkot has largely backed Netanyahu’s war decisions, although he has vowed to crack down on extremist settlers in the West Bank who have been attacking and stealing from Palestinians with virtual impunity.