TEL AVIV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd September, 2019) Israel's Joint List of Arab parties on Sunday recommended that President Reuven Rivlin choose Benny Gantz of opposition Kahol Lavan party as prime minister-designate.
"We recommend that Benny Gantz should form the government," Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Arab alliance in parliament, said during televised consultations with the president.
Rivlin will be consulting the elected parties for two days to pick a politician with the best chance of forming a coalition government. The Arab alliance came third in last week's election.
Ahmad Tibi, a lawmaker and leader of the Arab Movement for Change party, announced the end of incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's era on his Twitter page.
"Today's history is done: We'll do what needs to be done to bring Netanyahu down," he wrote.
But one party on the list, Balad, skipped the consultations and refused to recommend Gantz.
The Arab parties' move came as a surprise after they repeatedly refused to back anyone for premiership for the past 27 years. Gantz now has 44 of the required 61 endorsements to start coalition talks, and Arab votes could boost that count by 13 votes. Netanyahu has 55 votes.
