Generic view of Jerusalem’s Old City, not tied to the event. Photo: Robert Bye / Unsplash (resized).
JERUSALEM, Nov. 5, 2026 – President Isaac Herzog says he will announce on Sunday, Nov. 8, who will receive the mandate to try to form Israel’s next government, leaving the choice unannounced as he prepares further private talks with party leaders.
Herzog made the announcement Thursday after two days of consultations with parliamentary factions, Ynet reported. The Jerusalem Post’s live coverage independently reported that the mandate would be awarded Sunday.
Gadi Eisenkot is expected to receive the mandate, according to the reports, but Herzog has not announced that appointment. The distinction matters: expectations about the president’s decision are not a completed transfer of authority to form a government.
Recommendations do not settle coalition prospects
Herzog said the consultation results were seemingly clear, but the practical ability to form a government was not, because parties had ruled out working with one another both across and within political blocs, according to Ynet’s account of his remarks.
He plans to explore those questions directly and quickly through private conversations with some party leaders before announcing his decision Sunday. His stated goal is to help the parties find a way to build a stable government.
The consultations give parties an opportunity to recommend a candidate. They do not, by themselves, establish that those parties will agree on a coalition or serve together in a cabinet.
What a mandate means
A mandate gives a designated lawmaker the chance to try to assemble a governing coalition. It does not automatically make that person prime minister, and it does not mean a coalition agreement has already been reached.
The president’s consultations concern who has the best chance of bringing parties together to form a government, the Jerusalem Post explained. That is why Herzog is looking beyond the recommendations to the relationships and disagreements among potential coalition partners.
For Eisenkot and the parties that recommended him, the immediate question is whether support for receiving the mandate can be turned into agreement on a government. For Benjamin Netanyahu and other party leaders, the next stage concerns which combinations remain politically possible after their consultations with the president.
United Torah Judaism recommends nobody
United Torah Judaism did not recommend any candidate, Ynet reported. That absence of a recommendation should not be described as an endorsement of either Eisenkot or Netanyahu.
The factions’ positions and reciprocal exclusions leave coalition-building unresolved even after the formal recommendation meetings have ended. Herzog’s planned private conversations are intended to clarify that gap before he chooses who should make the attempt.
The decision will shape the next stage of government formation for Israel’s political parties and the public, but Sunday’s planned announcement is a starting point in that process, not proof that a new government is already in place.
JBizNews Desk | Israel
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