WATCH: Herzog begins consultations with parties on picking next PM

President Isaac Herzog begins consultations with the parties elected to the incoming Knesset regarding whom he should task with forming Israel’s next government.

The consultations, which are being livestreamed from the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, begin with the far-right Religious Zionism party, followed by the Sephardic Haredi Shas at 6:15 p.m., Yisrael Beytenu at 7:30 p.m. and Zehut, a far-right party that ran on the same slate as Religious Zionism, at 8:45 p.m.

Herzog will continue meeting with the remaining parties tomorrow, proceeding from the smallest parties to the largest and concluding with Netanyahu’s Likud. Each party will be asked to recommend a candidate for prime minister before Herzog decides which one he should afford the first opportunity to form a coalition.

Under Israeli law, Herzog is tasked with selecting the lawmaker he believes has the best chance of successfully forming a government, not the party with the most seats.

Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit, Shas and Likud have all said they will recommend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while Yashar, the Democrats, B’Yachad and Yisrael Beytenu have said they will back Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot.

United Torah Judaism has yet to announce its position, though Likud is reportedly pressuring the ultra-Orthodox party, its longtime ally, to recommend Netanyahu. The Arab-led Joint List and Ra’am have also not declared whom they will support, and may recommend Eisenkot if their backing is needed to vault him to first position. If UTJ declines to back Netanyahu, however, the Arab parties’ recommendations may prove unnecessary, potentially allowing them to abstain.

Watch the livestream of the meetings, in Hebrew, here: