Jerusalem: Israeli legislation allows for three attempts to form governments following elections to the Knesset (parliament), within a period not exceeding 12 weeks from the date of the mandate; otherwise, procedures leading to new elections begin. President Isaac Herzog is scheduled to start consultations on Wednesday that will last two days, with representatives of the parties that won the elections, to determine the identity of the member of the Knesset whom he will task with forming the government.
Mandate Process and Timeline
According to the Israel Democracy Institute, “within seven days of the official publication of the results, the president must appoint one of the members of the Knesset to the task of forming the government (the first appointment).” This member is granted a deadline of 28 days to form a government, and the president can extend this period by an additional period not exceeding 14 days. The legal requirements are limited to the fact that the person appointed must be a member of the Knesset and agree to accept the task.
If the first candidate fails to form a government, or informs the president of his inability to do so, or presents a government that has not obtained the confidence of the Knesset, the president must, within three days, decide whether to appoint another member of the Knesset to this task (the second appointment), or inform the speaker of the Knesset that he sees no possibility of forming a government. Before making his decision, the president has the right, but is not obliged, to hold further consultations with representatives of parliamentary blocs. The second candidate is granted a deadline of 28 days to form a government, without the possibility of obtaining an extension.
Failure and New Elections
If the second attempt also fails, or if the president decides not to appoint another candidate, at least 61 members of the Knesset can, within 21 days, request the president to appoint a specific member of the Knesset, in which case the president must respond to the request within two days, and the candidate is granted a deadline of 14 days to form a government. If such a request is not made, or if this attempt also fails, procedures leading to the dissolution of the Knesset and calling for new elections begin, as the Knesset can also enact a law to dissolve itself before that, ending the government formation process.
The institute stated: “When a majority of members of the Knesset submit a request to the president to appoint a specific member to the task, the president has no discretionary power, but must appoint that specific member.” It added: “Because the goal of this process is to form a government capable of obtaining the confidence of the Knesset, it is expected that the president will entrust the task to the candidate most able to achieve this goal.”
Current Political Situation
The elections resulted in the Jewish opposition camp led by Gadi Eisenkot winning 48 seats, Netanyahu’s camp winning 53 seats, and Arab parties winning 19. Thus, the total number of seats of the Jewish opposition and Arab parties is 67, a number that enables them to support the formation of a government if they agree on that, but does not mean there is a political agreement between them. According to positions reported, some factions in the Jewish opposition want a “Zionist government” without the participation of Arab parties, while the possibility of forming a government with Arab support outside the coalition remains contingent on reaching political understandings.
Factions in Arab parties have expressed their readiness to grant a safety net to a government headed by Eisenkot (support without participation in the government), in exchange for a safety net for Arab citizens including stopping house demolitions, stopping discrimination against Arabs, putting an end to rampant crime in Arab society, and opening a political horizon with the Palestinians.
