Bennett's Party to Recommend Eisenkot for Prime Minister Role

The "Achdut" party, led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, announced it will recommend Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the "Yashar! Im Eisenkot" party, to the President of Israel, Yitzhak Herzog, for the role of forming the next government. Bennett informed Eisenkot of the decision ahead of the consultation meetings scheduled to begin Wednesday at the President's Residence.

Eisenkot welcomed a statement by the Chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Judge Noam Sohlberg, which affirmed the integrity of the elections and that the results reflect the voters' will. Eisenkot stated, "The base and malicious attempt to deny the election results, undermine the public's will, slander an entire public, and drag Israel to further elections has failed." He added, "Only someone who understands they have lost is ready to embark on such blatant delegitimization, even at the cost of further damaging public trust in state institutions." Eisenkot asserted that the results of the 26th Knesset elections are clear and unambiguous, urging citizens to ignore background noise and spin, as the people have spoken and the current government has lost its majority.

Member of Knesset Vladimir Beliak also praised Sohlberg's statement and criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies, calling Sohlberg's declaration an end to Netanyahu's "false and ugly spin" to "steal the election." The reactions followed a joint statement by Sohlberg, State Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, and Head of Shin Bet David Zinai. Sohlberg clarified that while suspicions of foreign funding would be investigated, the existing evidence does not undermine the overall election results, and the official results would be submitted to the President as scheduled on Wednesday. The Likud party, however, criticized the statements and demanded a swift and thorough investigation before drawing conclusions about the impact of the suspicions on the results.