Netanyahu loses key religious party backing as rival edges closer to power
Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot (left) addressing his supporters at the election night rally in Tel Aviv on October 28, 2026, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to the media after voting in Jerusalem on October 27, 2026. An ultra-Orthodox Jewish party long aligned with Netanyahu declined on Thursday to recommend him to stay as Israel’s prime minister, as signs grew that rival Eisenkot will have the first chance to form a government. — AFP pic
Summary
- An ultra-Orthodox Jewish party has not recommended Benjamin Netanyahu for another term as Israel's prime minister, offering no support to his rival Gadi Eisenkot either.
- United Torah Judaism, aligned with Netanyahu in past elections, chose not to back any candidate to form a government after the October 27 election left no clear majority.
- Eisenkot, aiming to unite centrists, opposes military service exemptions for religious students, a critical issue for United Torah Judaism, which traditionally supports such exemptions.
First Published: Thursday, 05 Nov 2026 6:44 PM MYT
JERUSALEM, Nov 5 — An ultra-Orthodox Jewish party long aligned with Benjamin Netanyahu declined on Thursday to recommend him to stay as Israel’s prime minister, as signs grew that rival Gadi Eisenkot will have the first chance to form a government.
President Isaac Herzog was holding a second day of consultations with political parties after the October 27 election, in which neither Netanyahu — a polarising right-winger who has led Israel through three years of war — nor Eisenkot secured enough votes for a majority.
United Torah Judaism, which backed Netanyahu after the previous five elections, in its meeting with Herzog declined to recommend Netanyahu again as prime minister, although it also did not side with Eisenkot.
The party informed Herzog “that it has decided not to recommend any member of Knesset to form a government,” the president’s office said in a statement, referring to the 120-member parliament in which United Torah Judaism has won seven seats.
The party, which represents ultra-Orthodox Jews of Ashkenazi origin, who mostly hail from or have roots in Europe, as well as Shas, which represents the same community but of Sephardic, or mostly Middle Eastern and North African descent, have both been backed by Netanyahu as they push to maintain the exemption from military service for religious students.
Netanyahu has preserved the exemption but stopped short of enshrining it in law, in the face of major resentment from many other Israelis as reservists serve multiple tours due to the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
“In whatever government is next formed, our immediate item is sorting out the status of Torah students,” United Torah Judaism lawmaker Isaac Pindrus said.
Eisenkot, a former military chief seeking to unite the centre and centre-right, has been adamant about closing exemptions to military service, with some of his opposition allies harshly criticising the ultra-Orthodox as self-serving.
Observers say United Torah Judaism’s approach may be aimed more at punishing Netanyahu and showing that their votes cannot be taken for granted, while they could still serve in a government if he were to form one.
Herzog will meet representatives of the major parties later on Thursday before tasking one lawmaker with forming a government. He generally bases his decision on which person receives the most party recommendations, making it likely he will ask Eisenkot.
Once Herzog gives the mandate, that lawmaker will have 28 days to form a government, with a potential 14-day extension. If the lawmaker fails, Herzog will then task someone else.
Netanyahu’s bloc — including United Torah Judaism — has 53 seats in the new parliament, as opposed to 48 for Eisenkot’s bloc.
Israeli-Arab parties soared in strength on the back of anger over Netanyahu’s hard-right government, winning 19 seats.
Eisenkot could form a government with the Arab parties but would risk losing support from some in the opposition. — AFP
Does it makes any difference who is the government?
ReplyDeletehttps://x.com/aj_geo_analysis/status/2118507645527281730
Netanyahu just lost Israel, and the war with Iran did not even flinch...
The 2026 Israeli election is settled. In the consultations, 67 members of the Knesset recommended Gadi Eisenkot to President Herzog, against 46 for Netanyahu.
That number decides EVERYTHING, because 61 is a majority of the 120 seat Knesset, so 67 means Eisenkot already holds the votes to govern.
Herzog hands him the mandate on Sunday. After the longest run in the country's history, Netanyahu is out.
What finished him was the same thing that has broken every recent Israeli government, the Haredi draft.
The ultra-Orthodox parties walked when he could no longer shield them from conscription, and once they left, his bloc fell under the line.
The arithmetic now flips to Eisenkot, and one move makes it work.
Avigdor Liberman, who built his whole career on keeping the Haredim out, has dropped that veto.
That single concession lets the change bloc court United Torah Judaism with a softer draft law, pulling the same ultra-Orthodox who abandoned Netanyahu into the government built to replace him.
So what does a new man in the chair mean for the war on Iran? Almost NOTHING, as in ZERO, and that is the point.
Eisenkot is a former CHIEF OF STAFF of the IDF, a career General officer who served in the war cabinet, nobody's idea of a peace candidate.
Israel threw out the man they did not like but kept the WAR, and handed it to a soldier to "finish the job"...
The campaign against Iran was NEVER Netanyahu's personal project as I have said forever on this platform... It is a STRUCTURAL AND EXISTENTIAL WAR.
It runs on the same institutional track as the American side, the army and the security establishment, and those do not resign on election night.
That draft law is no side issue either. The whole fight over conscripting the Haredim is a fight about MANPOWER for a long war.
Israel is stretched across Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and the Iranian front all at once.
A government that finally forces the ultra-Orthodox into uniform is a government building the numbers it needs to fight for years, not months. That makes the coalition deal a mobilisation deal wearing a coalition's clothes.
And the timing is interesting because Israel installs a General on Sunday, the same weekend the American strike window on Iran opens.
A country does not hand the keys to a soldier in the middle of a war unless it expects the fighting to define the term.
Netanyahu is gone, sure.
The war he is most identified with is not.
A leader can fall while his war keeps marching, and that is the clearest proof yet that none of this was ever about him.
It is about the INSTITUTION that want to end each other and everyone else who gets in the way.
𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗡𝗔𝗟, 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗡𝗢𝗜𝗦𝗘!