Eisenkot open to Netanyahu joining Israel’s next government

Gadi Eisenkot, tasked by President Isaac Herzog with forming Israel’s next government, said he was open to including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in his coalition. At a ceremony in Jerusalem, he urged members of Likud and the Religious Zionist Party to support a government under his leadership if they truly wanted unity. Eisenkot, a former head of Israel’s military, has six weeks to form a government. Herzog warned that the results of the November 3 US midterm elections had created a new political reality and said Israel needed a stable government.