Eisenkot forms new gov't

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel's president announced on Saturday he would task Gadi Eisenkot with forming the next government following last week's election, in what caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rivals see as a first step to remove the country's longest-serving prime minister.

The opposition bloc led by Eisenkot, a former military chief and political newcomer who has tried to appeal to secular and liberal Israelis, has opened the door to a once improbable alliance with ultra-Orthodox Jews, which could give it the numbers to form a coalition.

President Isaac Herzog said that after consultations with all parties during the week, he would grant Eisenkot the first chance to form a government after the 27 October election, in which neither side secured a majority in a country deeply polarized by Netanyahu's hard-right rule and worn down by three years of war.

The formal appointment would take place in an official ceremony on Sunday at the president's residence in Jerusalem, Herzog's office said.

Eisenkot, who later pledged to "do everything" to form a new government, was recommended by parties representing 67 lawmakers as opposed to 46 for Netanyahu's bloc.

But the recommendations for Eisenkot included members of Israel's Arab minority — whose seat haul soared in the election on the back of anger against Netanyahu — and right-leaning segments of the opposition that are against relying on Arab votes.

Netanyahu, who has led Israel on and off for nearly two decades and guided its sharply rightward turn in recent years, faces corruption charges and potentially jail if he leaves office. He also faces an arrest warrant over the Gaza war from the International Criminal Court, whose authority he rejects.

Netanyahu has already called for a unity government but the opposition has stood firm on removing him first.

He has attacked opposition leaders for even considering working with Israeli Arabs, descendants of Palestinians who stayed after the creation of Israel in 1948.

Netanyahu warned on Saturday that a potential coalition between opposition parties and Arab lists would "dismantle the State of Israel from within" and urged the formation of a unity government comprising "all the Zionist parties.