Israel’s main opposition leaders have agreed to back former military chief Gadi Eisenkot as prime minister, promising to replace Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as quickly as possible.

Leaders of the Jewish-led opposition alliance met on Tuesday in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, in their first joint meeting since the 27 October election, which left neither bloc with a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. The deal comes a day before President Isaac Herzog begins consultations with parties on who should form the next government.

In a joint statement, the leaders said all their parties would recommend Eisenkot, head of the Yashar party, to Herzog, and that negotiating teams would immediately start drafting policy guidelines and coalition agreements. “The party leaders are coordinated and will act immediately” to replace Netanyahu’s coalition “with a national emergency government,” the statement said.

The meeting brought together Eisenkot, former prime minister Naftali Bennett, Yisrael Beytenu’s Avigdor Liberman, Yair Golan of the Democrats and Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid, according to The Jerusalem Post. They stood by four principles set out by Eisenkot, including recognising Israel as a Jewish state and labelling Hamas a “terrorist” group — conditions that could exclude some Arab-led parties.

Netanyahu’s bloc won 53 seats, the opposition 48 and Arab-led parties 19 (Joint List 11, Ra’am 8); a majority needs 61. Yousef Jabareen, head of the largest Arab-led party in the next parliament, said the opposition must accept “political reality” and join forces to remove Netanyahu.

Only Golan openly backs an alliance with Arab-led parties, whom he met before the talks; Liberman firmly opposes including them, though he also wants to avoid another election. On Monday Netanyahu called for a “broad national government” under his leadership and ruled out Arab-majority lists. Herzog holds consultations Wednesday and Thursday; Eisenkot could receive the most recommendations if he also wins Arab lawmakers’ backing.

Source: Israel’s opposition leaders back Eisenkot to oust Netanyahu (Al Jazeera)