Eisenkot said in connection with receiving the mandate that Benjamin Netanyahu's party and its coalition partners were welcome to join him - as long as they supported him as prime minister.
“If members of Likud and Religious Zionism (Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's party) truly believe that this is a time that requires unity, then I see no reason why they should not support a government under my leadership,” Eisenkot said, according to AFP.
Prime Minister Netanyahu's coalition was slightly larger than Eisenkot's opposition bloc in the elections at the end of October, but neither bloc won a majority.
The Arab-Israeli opposition thus held the balance of power, and Israel's largest Arab party alliance, the Joint List, said this week that it wanted Eisenkot to receive the mandate to form a government.
The opposition leader now has six weeks to try to form a government.
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