Ra'am and Democrats Recommend Eisenkot for PM; Twitter Spat Erupts

The Ra'am and Democrats parties on Thursday recommended that President Yitzhak Herzog task Gadi Eisenkot with forming the next government. During a meeting between Democratic party representatives and the President, a dispute arose following a post by the party's Director-General on X (formerly Twitter). The Director-General, Omer Lubaton Granot, posted, "Say you voted for Likud without saying you voted for Likud," while party representatives were meeting with Herzog. This was in response to a question Herzog had posed to the party's representatives about their future campaign strategies, asking if they would focus solely on opposition to Netanyahu. The Director-General's post caused outrage, with the Director-General of the President's Residence confronting the Democrats' representatives, stating, "This is not the first time your party has disrespected the President. I would be happy if you would reflect and stop this." President Herzog agreed, saying, "Correct."

The Democrats' delegation included Members of Knesset Efrat Reiten, Naama Lazimi, and Gilad Kariv, along with Gabriella Leski-Schutz and Yaya Fink. They formally submitted their recommendation for Eisenkot to the President. Ra'am also announced its support for assigning the mandate to Eisenkot during its consultation. Party Chairman Mansour Abbas stated, "We believe a new government can be formed that will be better than the government of failures." The Ra'am delegation included MKs Mansour Abbas, Yoav Segalovitz, Walid Taha, Walid Al-Huwashla, and Iman Khatib Yassin.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Joint List Yosef Jabareen commented on his faction's role in the political negotiations. He stated that Yair Golan, Chairman of the Democrats, had spoken with him after a meeting of the "change bloc" leaders and clarified that there was no change in their attitude towards the Joint List, emphasizing, "We are needed for any future coalition political arrangement in the Knesset." Ra'am and the Democrats' recommendations join that of Yisrael Beiteinu, which was submitted on Wednesday. In contrast, Shas, Religious Zionism, Zehut, and Otzma Yehudit recommended Benjamin Netanyahu. This morning, United Torah Judaism announced that, per the directive of their senior rabbis, they would not recommend any candidate, stating their support is contingent on the arrangement of the status of Torah scholars.