Arab Party Backs Eisenkot Government; Joint List Abstains

According to the Haaretz newspaper, the Arab Party will support a government led by Eisenkot. The newspaper also quoted a senior member of the Arab Party with eight MPs, who has not been named, as confirming this. The Joint List, the other Arab party in the Knesset, will not vote for Eisenkot, but will not seek to topple the Change bloc government. Its MPs are expected to abstain. After meeting with President Isaac Herzog, Eisenkot wrote on social media, "Now is the time to form a national emergency government. I will do everything possible to ensure that we prove ourselves worthy of this responsibility." However, his colleague in the Change bloc, Yair Golan, also expressed confidence that the coalition will do everything possible to keep Benjamin Netanyahu out of power. He also accused the current prime minister of trying to invalidate the election. Golan said, "For years, he has been trying to intimidate the people, provoke a change of power."