Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he intends to head a unified government bringing together Zionist and Haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) parties, a day after Israel's president transferred the authority to form a government to an opposition leader. According to Yonhap News, the Israeli prime minister made the remark in a video statement distributed by his office on November 9, local time.
The statement followed President Isaac Herzog's decision to grant the mandate to build a coalition to Gadi Eisenkot, the head of the opposition bloc and a former military chief of staff. The move, reported by Yonhap and other South Korean outlets including KBS News, Newsis, Kyunghyang Shinmun and Dong-A Ilbo, places Netanyahu's hold on power under serious threat after 19 years at the top of Israeli politics, according to Kyunghyang Shinmun.
Why it matters
The transfer of the coalition mandate is the clearest signal yet that Netanyahu's long tenure may be nearing its end. Under the arrangement described in the reporting, the initiative now lies with the opposition rather than the incumbent, reversing the usual direction of Israeli coalition talks.
Netanyahu's response also matters because of who he wants at the table. By insisting that every party from the conservative right, including his own Likud, Israel's largest party, join the government, he is arguing for a broad arrangement rather than one built around his opponents. The same statement called for the inclusion of all the allies from his existing coalition, among them far-right ultranationalist factions and ultra-Orthodox religious parties. That list effectively describes the partners who have propped up his current government.
What Netanyahu said
In the video message, Netanyahu argued that no group should be shut out of the government and that no one should exclude anyone else. He said he should lead a government that includes every party in the conservative right-wing camp, with Likud at its head as the first party. He also stressed that any government he leads must contain all the forces that were part of his existing coalition, including the far-right and Haredi parties.
The framing is notable. Rather than conceding that the mandate has moved, Netanyahu is presenting himself as the figure best placed to assemble the widest possible coalition. The appeal to inclusiveness runs alongside an explicit demand that his current partners be retained, which would leave the composition of any future government close to the one that exists now.
The mandate and the rival
Herzog's decision to hand the coalition-building task to Eisenkot came the day before Netanyahu's statement, according to Yonhap. Eisenkot leads the opposition bloc and previously served as the country's military chief of staff. KBS News reported that Eisenkot said he would form a national emergency government.
The reporting does not specify the terms under which Herzog made his decision, nor the timetable Eisenkot now faces. What the outlets do make clear is the political weight of the shift: Dong-A Ilbo described Netanyahu as facing the risk of losing office, and Kyunghyang Shinmun framed the development as a possible end point for his 19 years in power.
A government of inclusion, or a bid to hold ground
Netanyahu's language of inclusion sits awkwardly against the arithmetic of Israeli coalition politics as described in the reports. A government that contains Likud, the far-right parties and the ultra-Orthodox parties is, in practice, the same alliance that has sustained him. His call for no one to be excluded can therefore be read as an argument for preserving that bloc under his leadership rather than as an offer of partnership to the opposition that has just been given the mandate.
The reports do not indicate whether Eisenkot has responded to Netanyahu's statement, or whether any of the parties Netanyahu named have commented on his proposal. Nor do they say what Herzog's next step would be if coalition talks under Eisenkot do not produce a government.
For now, the two men are pursuing competing visions of the same goal. Eisenkot, according to KBS News, is working toward a national emergency government. Netanyahu, according to Yonhap, wants a broad right-wing and religious government with himself at its head. Both describe their plans as inclusive; the difference lies in whom each would include.
What to watch
The immediate question is whether Eisenkot can assemble a majority from the opposition bloc and what role, if any, Likud or the Haredi parties would play in it. Netanyahu's insistence that his current partners remain in government suggests he will resist any arrangement that leaves them outside. How Herzog handles the competing claims, and whether the far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties stay with Netanyahu or negotiate elsewhere, will determine whether his 19-year run ends or continues.
