AA Edit | Anyone But Netanyahu Will Do

Anyone but Netanyahu was the prevailing sentiment in Israel as Gadi Eisenkot was tasked with forming a government to keep out the long-serving Prime Minister ‘Bibi’. His coalition may have topped the polls in a simple numbers game, but Netanyahu’s brand of aggressive politics has been shunned by a majority of voters leaving the next best alliance of parties the chance to resolve the knotty verdict in the proportional representation system.

Eisenkot has the unenviable task of cobbling together the parties and numbers to run a government, even if it be a minority one with the support of the Israeli Arab parties from outside. But there is a Catch-22 situation there for the former army chief, who lost a son and two nephews in the military action in Gaza, as ultra-Orthodox and other Jewish parties might not wish to see the Arab parties buttress government ranks in the Knesset.

Given four weeks, extendable by another two weeks, Eisenkot, who has refused to countenance Netanyahu’s invitation to form an emergency government with him still heading it, has a delicate balancing act to get enough parties together to ensure his government can command at least a 61-legislator majority that seems a bridge too far at the moment unless the Arab parties are allowed to join the alliance and enjoy a formal share in power.

Bristling with contradictions as the situation is, the old call of ensuring stability to be able to forcefully handle Israel’s security problems in the face of a permanent existential threat may have failed. In fact, the hawkish Netanyahu’s government has been punished more for its failure on the intelligence front to predict and stave off the barbaric attack on the country by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

With the risk of another election being called in the event the deadlock persists, the anti-Netanyahu coalition must get its act together and forgo long-standing suspicion of the Arab parties, not insist on their terming Hamas terrorists, nor force them to formally accept that Israel is a Jewish state, if it is to give their country the opportunity to forge a whole new beginning with Mr Netanyahu not in the PM’s seat.

Peace in the region is all too important for Israel to recover from the extended military action in Gaza, which has been seen as a disproportionate response to the October 7 butchery. The only silver lining from the indistinct general election vote is that not even ‘Bibi’ may dare to attack Iran or escalate attacks on Gaza as he stays on as the caretaker Prime Minister.