Benjamin Netanyahu is still Israel's prime minister. Claims spreading online that he is out are wrong: he stays on as caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed, and if no one can form one, Israel goes to new elections with Netanyahu still in office.

Nobody won a majority in the election on 27 October. With all votes counted, Netanyahu's bloc holds 53 of the Knesset's 120 seats, the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot holds 48 and the Arab-led parties hold 19. A government needs 61. Netanyahu's Likud is still the largest single party, with 27 seats to 21 for Eisenkot's Yashar.

What changed this week is that the opposition settled on its candidate, which is not the same as a government being formed. Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Liberman and Yair Golan all said they would recommend Eisenkot to President Isaac Herzog, and the bloc's leaders hold their first joint meeting since the election on Tuesday. The Arab parties have not yet said whom they will recommend. The Joint List says all its factions must agree first; if both Arab parties back Eisenkot, he would have about 67 recommendations.