Israel’s Herzog accepts vote results, opens talks on forming a government

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog has accepted the certified results of last week’s parliamentary elections and begun consultations with party leaders on whom to task with forming the next government. The moves on Wednesday dealt a blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to discredit the vote, in which he and his allies lost their majority in the 120-member parliament, while Arab-led parties made historic gains.

In the October 27 vote, neither Netanyahu’s coalition nor the bloc of his chief rival, opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot, secured the 61 seats required to govern. The prime minister’s coalition won 53, while Eisonkot’s got 48.

That leaves open the possibility of an alliance between the two men or an alliance between Eisenkot and the Arab-led parties – Ra’am and the Joint List – which had secured a record 19 seats. Herzog concluded the first day of consultations with party leaders on Wednesday night, and said talks would continue on Thursday.