Israeli President Isaac Herzog gave Gadi Eisenkot the first chance to form Israel's next government, after parties holding 67 of the Knesset's 120 seats recommended him and parties holding 46 recommended Benjamin Netanyahu. It does not end Netanyahu's time in office, and it may not end his career.

Netanyahu stays prime minister while Eisenkot tries. Eisenkot has 28 days to build a coalition, and Herzog can extend that by 14. If he fails, another candidate can be given a turn, and if no one can form a government Israel goes to another election, with Netanyahu in office the whole time.

The 67 are not a coalition. Eisenkot's own four-party bloc has 48 seats. The other 19 belong to Ra'am and the Joint List, two Arab-led parties, and three of the Jewish-led parties in his camp refuse to govern with them. Avigdor Liberman has said "We must not establish a government that relies on the abstention of the Joint List and Ra'am." Ahmad Tibi of the Joint List told Herzog his party would back a minority government from outside but would not be a "safety net" for one likely to collapse.

The other route runs through United Torah Judaism, whose seven seats went to neither candidate. Its price is concessions on drafting Haredi men into the army, and every leader in Eisenkot's bloc promised before the election not to sit with the Haredi parties. Netanyahu has already warned against any government that relies on Arab parties, and Likud is pushing a "broad national government" that would include it, which Eisenkot's party has rejected.

Netanyahu has been pushed out before. Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid formed a government without him in June 2021, it collapsed a year later, and Netanyahu was back in office by the end of 2022.

It's important to remember that all parties in both blocs support the genocide in Gaza, and election results will do little to help the plight of the Palestinians.