No. of Recommendations: 3
More big news: Gadi Eisenkot has received enough endorsements from the Knesset to form a government in Israel. We still have to wait for him to be officially given the mandate on Sunday, but this should mean that Benjamin Netanyahu has been defeated and is out as Prime Minister.
Definitely too soon. The president only appoints Eisenkot to form a new government, giving him two weeks to do so, with a possible one week extension. It's a formality. The political deadlock in Israel hasn't changed. Eisenkot will have the rest of the month to try to resolve it.
It looks like the Netanyahu coalition has cracked, giving Eisenkot a chance to build a new coalition with the religious orthodox parties, which were solidly with Netanyahu before. Netanyahu’s Likud and the ultra right nationalist parties will be left out. If this happens I’m hopeful that the worst of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians will be halted, and Israel can step back from being the international pariah that it is now.
