In the October 27 elections, Netanyahu and his Likud Party brought a coalition of other parties together that totaled 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Netanyahu’s chief opponent, Gadi Eisenkot, gathered a coalition of 48 seats.
A minimum of 61 seats are needed to form a unity government moving forward.
A third Israeli political figure is Isaac Herzog, president of the State of Israel. Elected by the Knesset for that role, Herzog is currently attempting to help the nation's splintered parties come together. They seem to be getting behind Eisenkot, a former army general, as a new leader.
CBN News correspondent Chris Mitchell described Israel’s latest political news to the “Washington Watch” program on Thursday. Mitchell said Herzog’s meetings with party leaders ended with 67 members of the Knesset backing Eisenkot. Another 46 members told Herzog they support Netanyahu.
“That doesn’t mean they’re going to form a government,” Mitchell explained. “It means he’s got the first opportunity to form a coalition.”
The political path to a 61-seat majority is a complicated process, Mitchell said, and he compared it to solving a Rubik’s Cube.
Mitchell also raised the issue of U.S.-Israel relations after President Donald Trump announced $4 billion in annual military aid to Israel was ending at the end of the year.
Trump’s announcement came Tuesday, on Election Day, and some political speculation suggested it was a last-minute attempt to woo conservative voters unhappy with the Israel-U.S. partnership and the Iran war.
Mitchell did not dispute that close partnership, either, but he said the feeling among some Israelis is the military aid is like “golden handcuffs” that allow the White House to influence Israel’s government and its military, or else threaten withholding the aid.
“And some people say now they're free of those golden handcuffs,” Mitchell shared.
In a separate “Washington Watch” interview, Republican Rep. Randy Fine said there is a strong anti-Israel stance among fellow lawmakers in Congress. That stance is going to grow after Tuesday’s elections, when several anti-Israel candidates won office, he said.
Fine, who is Jewish, won re-election this week in his Florida district.
