With 64 recommenders • President Herzog announced: Netanyahu will form the government

November 11, 2022   

The sweet victory of the right-wing bloc: President of the State Yitzhak Herzog today (Friday) concluded the round of consultations with all the factions elected to the Knesset - and will assign the task of forming a government to Benjamin Netanyahu. At the end of the round of consultations, 64 Knesset members recommended to the President of the State the chairman of the Likud faction, MK Benjamin Netanyahu. 28 Knesset members recommended the chairman of Yesh Atid MK Yair Lapid, and four factions - 28 Knesset members, chose not to recommend any Knesset member. Following the consultations, the Director General of the President's Office, Eyal Shweki, called MK Benjamin Netanyahu's chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, and asked him to invite Netanyahu to accept the task of forming a government from the President of the State on Sunday. From the moment the President assigns the task of forming a government to the elected Knesset member, he will have 28 days, according to the Basic Law of the Government, to form a new government in Israel. In a situation where an extension to the process is required, the President of the State has the authority to grant an extension of up to 14 additional days according to the law. In the round of consultations held in recent days at the President's Office: Recommending MK Benjamin Netanyahu - 1. Likud faction. 2. Shas faction. 3. United Torah Judaism faction. 4. Religious Zionism faction. 5. Otzma Yehudit faction. 6. Noam faction. Recommending MK Yair Lapid - 1. Yesh Atid faction. 2. Labor faction. Refraining from recommending a Knesset member - 1. State Camp faction. 2. Yisrael Beiteinu faction. 3. Ra'am faction. 4. Hadash-Ta'al faction. This morning, President Herzog met with the Hadash-Ta'al faction and attacked MK Aida Touma Slimane for her support for terrorists. "You came out in publications that supported criminal terrorists that we in the Israel Defense Forces are fighting. And you know that this was at the height of the election campaign, you had support for terrorists, and this is something that is unacceptable to the Israeli public," said Herzog. Herzog was asked about Ben-Gvir's invitation to consult with him, compared to his father, the late Rabbi Meir Kahane's refusal to consult with Rabbi Meir Kahane. "My father, President Chaim Herzog, refused to let Kahane into the President's House based on a court ruling that disqualified his candidacy," the president explained. "In the current case, we are talking about the Religious Zionist Party, a party that received half a million votes, whose candidacy the court approved and I must make this separation. We need to put it on the table. He was here on previous occasions as well.".