President Isaac Herzog accepted the certified results on Wednesday at a ceremony at the President's Residence and opened consultations with party representatives. The talks run two days, after which he will name the candidate he judges to have the clearest path to a government. That candidate has 28 days to assemble a coalition, with a possible 14-day extension. If no government forms, a new election would follow in early 2027. Netanyahu remains caretaker prime minister in the meantime, and the new Knesset is to be sworn in on November 10.

The count of recommendations is already taking shape. Ra'am, one of the Arab-led parties, has recommended Eisenkot, bringing his endorsements to 56. The Joint List, with 11 seats, could prove decisive. Netanyahu is expected to win recommendations from four of the five parties in his bloc, totaling 46 seats. The fifth, United Torah Judaism, holds 7 seats and has reportedly held back from endorsing him while under pressure to do so. Without it, Eisenkot's side would have to look to Arab-led parties to reach a majority.

That path is narrow. Both large Jewish-led blocs have largely ruled out partnering with Arab parties, and one regional assessment calls an Eisenkot coalition that leans on them theoretically possible but unlikely, noting that Eisenkot, a former army chief of staff, lost his son Gal Meir in combat on December 7, 2023. The other route runs through an alliance of Netanyahu and Eisenkot themselves. The Brookings Institution, in a paper published October 30, called new elections in early 2027 the most likely outcome if no government forms within three months.

The certification itself was contested. Netanyahu, his supporters and the Likud party have claimed that Arab-led parties "stole" the election. The Central Elections Committee reviewed 9,069 polling stations and found no evidence of fraud, and nothing has been presented to support the claim. Likud lawmaker Amit Halevi, who resigned from the committee before the vote, has said "foreign countries interfered in the election and that some lawmakers bought their seats with bribe money." A Shin Bet investigation into foreign interference is ongoing, and no evidence for that claim has been provided either. The elections committee has said that even if interference occurred, it would not undermine the integrity of the process.

At the ceremony, Likud lawyer Ilan Bombach was the only representative of Netanyahu's bloc. Otzma Yehudit voted against certifying the results, the other coalition parties abstained, and opposition parties voted in favor, so the results were approved. Turnout was between 77 and 78 percent, depending on the source.

Netanyahu, who is 77, is on trial in corruption cases, and his handling of the war in Gaza since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023 has drawn criticism. Eisenkot is 11 years younger. Diplomats quoted in regional coverage say European and Arab leaders may favor Eisenkot while the Israeli public leans toward Netanyahu, and experts see little difference between the two on the Palestinian issue or Iran. Former U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz put it this way: "While I certainly hope Netanyahu loses, it's hard to imagine that this Israeli election will fundamentally alter their foreign policy."