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Israel’s President Holds Crucial Cards in Breaking Post-Election Deadlock

 

News Analysis

Israel’s President Holds Crucial Cards in Breaking Post-Election Deadlock

 

President Isaac Herzog has tried to avoid controversy and heal rifts in his largely ceremonial role. But his skills as a savvy mediator could be instrumental after an inconclusive election.

President Isaac Herzog may push for a broad, unity government after the fractious election, analysts say.Credit...Bernadett Szabo/Reuters

By Isabel Kershner

Reporting from Jerusalem

Nov. 4, 2026Updated 8:18 a.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/04/world/middleeast/israel-president-herzog-election-government.html

 

For five years, Isaac Herzog has tried to avoid controversy and heal rifts in his largely ceremonial role as the president of Israel. Now, following last week’s inconclusive election, he must make a decision that is likely to roil one half or the other of a fractured country.

One of the president’s few powers is the ability to grant a party leader the mandate to try and form a government. Typically, this is assigned to the head of the party that has won the most votes or appears to have the best chance of building a coalition that would command a majority in Parliament. But the law is vague, giving the president a lot of leeway over the process.

Mr. Herzog, the scion of an illustrious Israeli family who is expected to remain involved in the backroom talks throughout the process, will have to draw on his skills as a savvy negotiator and mediator — expertise he honed over his years as a lawyer and politician, including as leader of the center-left Labor party.

After working in law, he served as a government secretary under Prime Minister Ehud Barak and as a minister in multiple governments. He ran a credible but unsuccessful campaign to replace Mr. Netanyahu in the 2015 election and went on to lead the Jewish Agency, an organization that serves as a bridge between Israel and the Jewish diaspora.

A longtime advocate of national unity, he will most likely work to enable as broad a government as possible, analysts say, to try to get Israel out of what many call the political “plonter,” a Yiddish word to describe a mess, like an intricate knot that is hard to unravel.

“This is his big moment,” Nachman Shai, a former Labor minister and lawmaker, said of Mr. Herzog. “He is a polished, creative politician,” he added. “Not everyone will like his ideas, but I’m sure he will be looking for solutions to build a coalition that are out of the box.”

Starting on Wednesday, representatives of the 11 political parties elected to the new Parliament will troop through the presidential residence in a leafy neighborhood of Jerusalem to consult with Mr. Herzog and to recommend their candidate for the premiership.

Most party leaders are expected to back either Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the longtime right-wing leader, or his main center-right rival, Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief.

 

Party ideologyRightFar rightUltra-OrthodoxCenter-rightIndependent rightLeftArab

• Netanyahu’s current bloc: Likud, Jewish Power, United Torah Judaism, Shas, Religious Zionism. 53 seats.
• Jewish opposition bloc: Yashar, Together, Democrats, Yisrael Beiteinu. 48 seats.
• Arab parties: Joint List, Raam. 19 seats.

Note: Parties must win at least 3.25 percent of the national vote to enter the 120-seat Knesset.

Source: Israel’s Central Elections Committee

 

Neither man’s political bloc won an outright majority of 61 seats in the 120-member Parliament. Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud took 27 seats, making it the largest party, but his hard-right, religious coalition’s tally fell to 53 seats.

Mr. Eisenkot’s main bloc of Jewish opposition parties secured 48 seats. If the Arab-led parties that oppose Mr. Netanyahu and won 19 seats also recommend him to Mr. Herzog, the president may well grant him the first opportunity to try and form a government. Some of Mr. Eisenkot’s Jewish allies, however, have balked at the idea of a government relying on Arab support.

Mr. Herzog cannot take political sides and must remain a unifying figurehead above the fray. He has called for a “stable” government without specifying how it should be formed and has called on the parties’ representatives to consult with him with open minds and hearts.

The law allows the assigned candidate 28 days to try to form a government, though the president can extend that period by up to 14 days. If the first attempt fails, the president can give another candidate a chance or refer the efforts to Parliament. If no party leader is able to form a governing coalition, new elections would be held — an outcome that Mr. Herzog has urged them to avoid.

The kind of broad unity government that Mr. Herzog may envisage would likely require some kind of power-sharing deal between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Eisenkot — a prospect that faces huge obstacles.

Image

Mr. Herzog may give Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief, the first opportunity to try and form a government because his alliance won the most votes. Credit...Amir Levy/Getty Images

Mr. Eisenkot says that Mr. Netanyahu must be replaced and has ruled out serving under him. Mr. Netanyahu, who has been on trial for six years following corruption charges in three separate but interlocking cases, cannot serve in a government as a minister. According to Israeli law, only a prime minister can serve under indictment.

Mr. Herzog has a potentially valuable, if highly contentious, card to play to try to bring Mr. Netanyahu on side with a unifying coalition, analysts say.

The president has the authority to issue pardons, generally for people already convicted of crimes. Mr. Netanyahu, who has denied any wrongdoing, submitted a pre-emptive request for a pardon during his trial a year ago.

Mr. Herzog has instead offered to try to initiate a mediation process to reach a plea deal and invited the attorney general and Mr. Netanyahu’s lawyer for talks. Mr. Netanyahu’s team never replied.

“A pardon can be part of a package deal,” Mr. Shai said. “It could be a way for Mr. Herzog to come to a compromise with him. Everyone is tired of the trial by now, and nobody knows how it will end.”

“Herzog is energetic, super active, primed for action,” he said. “People forget he is one of the most experienced people around,” he added.

Mitchell Barak, an analyst who worked as an aide to Mr. Netanyahu and later for President Shimon Peres, a former Labor leader, said Mr. Herzog’s history with the prime minister and the “ace” of a potential pardon could be viewed either as a conflict of interest in negotiations or as an advantage.

“He is holding a get-out-of-jail-free card for Netanyahu,” Mr. Barak added. “Or you could call it leverage,” he added.

The president’s office dismissed suggestions of a conflict of interest, saying the pardon and the efforts toward forming a government were two different tracks based on separate laws.

As president, Mr. Herzog oversaw negotiations that tried, and failed, to reach a compromise over the Netanyahu government’s plans for a judicial overhaul that caused turmoil in Israel. Mr. Shai said many Israelis had expected Mr. Herzog to take a stronger stand against the government’s moves and that the episode harmed his public standing.

Image

Mr. Herzog could encourage Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a unity government with Mr. EisenkotCredit...Chris Mcgrath/Getty Images

Mr. Herzog also appears to have tried to build confidence on both sides of Israel’s political divide.

He has spoken out against what he called “a terrible process of brutalization” creeping into Israeli society, citing a surge of “mob” violence by Jews against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the abuse of detainees in Israeli custody.

Mr. Herzog also recently expunged the criminal record of Elor Azaria, a former soldier who fatally shot a severely wounded Palestinian man at close range while he lay on the ground a decade ago. The man had earlier been seriously injured after he attacked an Israeli checkpoint. The president’s move baffled and angered many liberal Israelis but fulfilled a long-sought demand from Israel’s right.

Mr. Herzog also has his family legacy and reputation to consider. His grandfather, Rabbi Dr. Yitzhak Isaac Halevi Herzog, was the first Chief Rabbi of the state of Israel. His father, Chaim Herzog, served as the sixth president of Israel.

After the 1984 election, when Mr. Peres and Yitzhak Shamir, then the Likud leader, were in a deadlock, Mr. Herzog’s father played an active role in promoting the formation of a unity government, resolving the political impasse.

Mr. Herzog “is part of the country’s old guard and political elite with a storied tradition of excellence,” said Mr. Barak. “There’s a certain responsibility that comes with that.”

Isabel Kershner, a senior correspondent for The Times in Jerusalem, has been reporting on Israeli and Palestinian affairs since 1990.

The midterms were a thumping rebuke of the US-Israel relationship

 

Analysis

The midterms were a thumping rebuke of the US-Israel relationship

Alice Speri

Even Trump seems to recognize that the relationship has become a political liability, and may never be the same

Wed 4 Nov 2026 19.22 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/nov/04/israel-relationship-midterm-elections

 

On the eve of a midterm election that ended in an unequivocal rejection of his brand of politics, even Donald Trump seemed to recognize that the US-Israel relationship had become a political liability.

Trump’s 11th-hour suggestion, on election morning, that he would cut military aid to Israel at the end of the year because, as he put it, “they don’t need it”, was condemned across the board – with pro-Palestinian advocates dismissing it as “desperate” and pro-Israel ones as “unserious”.

Trump’s suggestion that he would replace nearly $4bn in annual military aid with arms sales signaled little would change in practice – the funding would continue and it would be harder to track. But it was still a notable recognition by the president of just how much support for Israel has tanked against the backdrop of the latest war in Gaza, which has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, been widely been described as a genocide, and reshaped US politics in ways unthinkable just three years ago.

Indeed, come January, the US House will include an army doctor who went on a medical mission in Gaza, a lawyer who was fired by her firm over a blogpost criticizing Israel’s war, a Jewish lawmaker who was recently detained by Israeli forces while helping Palestinians harvest olives in the occupied West Bank, and a community organizer who participated in a pro-Palestine student encampment and scored one of the primary season’s most stunning upsets under the banner “babies, not bombs”.

Pro-Palestinian candidates – including Palestinian-American ones – have won downballot races. And in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim to be elected to the US Senate, following a campaign that saw more than $40m spent by Aipac in an effort to defeat him, last-minute drama, and unprecedented levels of Islamophobic rhetoric and bigotry.

“The old bipartisan consensus on Israel is over,” Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, said. Without that consensus in place, the next Congress could push a number of measures, from an arms embargo on Israel to sanctions against violent settlers and officials – though Trump would retain veto power to block them.

The vote was also a rejection of Trump’s war in Iran – something even JD Vance said on Wednesday was “obvious to almost everyone”. Foreign policy issues rarely determine US elections – that is, until those issues have a direct effect on Americans’ lives at home.

“Americans were reminded of the failures of the Iran war with every visit to the gas station and grocery store,” said Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program at the Arab Center Washington DC. “Israel is a central piece of that story.”

Across the country, and up and down the ballot, unabashedly pro-Palestinian candidates defeated pro-Israel ones despite groups like Aipac pouring tens of millions of dollars into a failed attempt to reverse Israel’s collapsing standing among US voters. Last month, Aipac acknowledged its open support was hurting pro-Israel candidates more than it helped them, and announced it would stop making direct endorsements and contributions – a remarkable admission even if one with little practical consequence.

The victories of El-Sayed and several other candidates whom the right sought to cast as antisemitic over their support for Palestinians also marked a significant rejection of the narrative that pro-Israel voices and the Trump administration have relentlessly advanced over the last three years – that criticism of Israel is, by default, antisemitic.

“They try to call you hateful if you believe that Palestinian kids should get to grow up in the land of their forefathers without being murdered by our tax dollars,” El-Sayed, who has continued to speak plainly about his support for Palestinians despite coming under enormous pressure over it, said during his acceptance speech. “If you believe in equal rights to peace, dignity, and self determination, that’s not hate, it’s love.”

In Michigan, El-Sayed won a majority of Jewish voters, according to exit polls. Despite warnings that Jews would leave the Democratic party en masse over its shifts on Israel, J Street said its polling found that 72% of Jews voted for Democrats on Tuesday, even though the Republican party increased its share of the Jewish vote since 2024..

This does not mean that the Democratic party is unified on Israel and Palestine and or in opposition to foreign wars.

For decades, the party has “excluded or marginalized anyone whose progressive values extend to support for Palestine”, Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, said. “American voters, organizers, and a cohort of enormously talented candidates came together and kicked the door down.”

Matt Duss, executive vice-president of the Center for International Policy and a former foreign policy aide to Senator Bernie Sanders, said that the Democrats now must seize the opportunity to become the party opposed to war.

“Trump ran and won as an anti-war candidate in 2024, because unfortunately Democrats left that lane wide open for him,” he said. “The question is: will Democrats finally get it? Will they finally realize that Americans are tired of war and want a new foreign policy?”