Israel’s president announced on Saturday he would task Gadi Eisenkot with forming the next government following last week’s election, in what Netanyahu’s rivals see as a first step to remove the country’s longest-serving prime minister.
The opposition bloc led by Eisenkot, a former military chief and political newcomer who has tried to appeal to secular and liberal Israelis, has opened the door to a once improbable alliance with ultra-Orthodox Jews, which could give it the numbers to form a coalition.
