Gadi Eisenkot will be formally appointed to form a government at an official ceremony at the president's residence in Jerusalem on Sunday. (EPA Images pic)JERUSALEM: Israel's president announced on Saturday he would task Gadi Eisenkot with forming the next government following last week's election, in what Benjamin 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.
President Isaac Herzog said that after consultations with all parties during the week, he would grant Eisenkot the first chance to form a government after the Oct 27 election, in which neither side secured a majority in a country deeply polarised by Netanyahu's hard-right rule and worn down by three years of war.
