Eisenkot gets backing of 67 Knesset members, putting Netanyahu's hold on power at risk

Benjamin Netanyahu, long Israel's prime minister, now faces a threat to his hold on power. Gadi Eisenkot, the country's former defence chief and president of the Yashar party, has secured the support of 67 members of the 120-seat Knesset, Israel's parliament.

A majority of 61 members is needed to form a government, and Eisenkot has comfortably cleared that mark. However, bringing together parties of differing ideologies and then running a government will be a major challenge for him.

Eisenkot received the support during a meeting with President Isaac Herzog after the election results. The bloc standing with him includes both Jewish opposition parties and Arab parties.

The 67 break down as follows. The Jewish-led opposition bloc has 48 seats. The Arab party Ra'am has 8 seats. The Arab alliance Joint List has 11 seats. All these parties together backed Eisenkot's name, which gave him the support of 67 members.

On the other side, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his right-wing bloc have suffered a heavy blow in the election. Netanyahu's alliance had won a total of 53 seats. But its old ally, United Torah Judaism (UTJ), decided not to back anyone. As a result, the real count for Netanyahu's side has dropped to just 46.

The main reason for UTJ's anger is the issue of military service for religious students. UTJ had long been demanding that the Netanyahu government pass a law giving young men of the Haredi community, who pursue religious studies, a permanent exemption from compulsory military service. Netanyahu could not fulfil this promise.

UTJ has two major religious factions, Degel HaTorah and Agudat Israel. Their spiritual leaders gave their party a clear directive that no candidate would be supported until an exemption from military service was guaranteed. This decision has shattered Netanyahu's hopes of holding on to power.

Even with 67 members behind him, Eisenkot's path is not easy, because not all the parties backing him are ready to join the government directly. The Arab-led Joint List recommended Eisenkot's name to the president in order to remove Netanyahu from power, but has made clear that it will not join this coalition government as ministers or as a constituent party.

A second difficulty is the gap between ideologies. Right-wing, centrist and Arab parties think very differently. Building consensus among all of them on the army, security and social policy will be a hard test for Eisenkot.

It is expected that President Isaac Herzog will first invite Eisenkot to form the government. Even so, keeping parties of differing outlooks together and giving the country a stable government will remain the biggest question before him.