Lawmakers elected on October 27 took their oaths on Tuesday as Benjamin Netanyahu remained caretaker prime minister: his Likud-led bloc holds 53 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, Eisenkot’s Yashar party and its partner factions hold 48, and the Arab-led parties hold 19 and are aligned with Eisenkot against Netanyahu. Moments after the opening, Eisenkot and his allies submitted bills to establish a state commission of inquiry into the October 7, 2023 attacks, to impose term limits on the prime minister, and to repeal the judicial overhaul laws passed under Netanyahu, and the new parliament could also replace the Likud speaker.
Eisenkot, tasked by President Isaac Herzog on Sunday with forming a government, has until December 6, extendable to December 20, and called his path to power extraordinarily complex: the ultra-Orthodox parties have so far refused to join him, leaving a minority government with Arab party support or a unity government with Netanyahu as his main routes. Netanyahu used his speech to call for a unity government, warning that Iran was seeking to revive its nuclear programme, and Herzog told lawmakers they must do everything to avoid a repeat election.